BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 

o 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


M;W 


DANGERS  TO  FREEDOM, 

M:\V  DUTIES 
FOK  ITS  DEFENDERS. 

A    L  E  T  T  E  R  , 

1»Y   THE 

HON.    HORACE    MANN, 

1  TO    HIS    CONSTITUENTS, 

MAY  3,  1850. 


I 

L 


U O  ST O N : 
RED  D  T  N  (I      V  N  1>      CO/MP'Al 


I 


u.  c. 

ADEMY   OF 
j«F»C  COAST 
HISTORY 


NEW  DANGERS 


TO. FREEDOM, 


AND 


NEW    DUTIES 

FOR  ITS  DEFENDERS 

A  LETTER 


BY  THE 


HON.  HOEACE  MANN 

TO  HIS  CONSTITUENTS, 
MAY  3,  1850. 


BOSTON: 
BEDDING   AND    COMPANY, 

1850. 


DAMRELL   &   MOORE,   PRINTERS,  NO.  16   DEVONSHIRE   STREET. 


LETTER, 


WEST  NEWTON,  May  3,  1850. 

To  the  Honorable  JAMES  RICHARDSON,  I.  CLEVELAND,  and  JOHN  GARDNER, 
of  Dedham;  Honorable  D.  A.  SIMMONS,  JOHN  J.  CLARKE,  FRANCIS 
BILLIARD  and  GEORGE  R.  RUSSELL,  of  Roxbury,  &c. 

GENTLEMEN  :  —  Having  been  called  home  on  account  of  sickness  in  my 
family,  I  have  just  received,  at  this  place,  your  kind  invitation  to  meet  and 
address  my  constituents  of  the  8th  Congressional  District,  and  to  give  them 
my  "  views  and  opinions  upon  the  question  of  the  immediate  admission  of 
California,  and  other  questions  now  before  Congress  arising  out  of  the 
acquisition  of  territory  by  the  treaty  with  Mexico." 

A  request  from  so  high  a  source  has  almost  the  force  of  a  command.  Yet 
I  dare  not  promise  to  comply.  I  am  liable  at  any  moment  to  be  recalled, 
and,  instead  of  speaking  here,  to  vote  there,  upon  the  questions  to  which 
you  refer.  I  might  be  summoned  to  return  on  the  day  appointed  for  us  to 
meet.  The  only  alternative,  therefore,  which  is  left  me,  is  to  address  you 
by  letter.  This  I  will  do,  if  I  can  find  time.  I  shall  thus  comply  with 
your  request,  in  substance,  if  not  in  form. 

On  many  accounts,  I  have  the  extremest  reluctance  to  appear  before  the 
public  on  the  present  occasion.  My  views,  on  some  vital  questions,  differ 
most  materially  from  those  of  gentlemen  for  whom  I  have  felt  the  profound- 
est  respect ;  and  for  some  of  whom  I  cherish  the  strongest  personal  attach 
ment.  But  I  feel,  on  the  other  hand,  that  my  constituents,  having  entrusted 
to  me  some  of  their  most  precious  interests,  are  entitled  to  know  my  "  views 
and  opinions  "  respecting  the  hopes  and  the  dangers  that  encompass  them. 
I  shall  not,  therefore,  take  the  responsibility  of  declining. 

I  will  premise  further,  that  my  relations  to  political  parties,  for  many 


years  past,  have  left  me  as  free  from  all  partisan  bias  "  as  the  lot  of  human 
ity  will  admit."  For  twelve  years  I  held  an  office  whose  duties  required 
me  to  abstain  from  all  active  cooperation  in  political  conflicts  ;  and  that  duty 
was  so  religiously  fulfilled,  that,  to  my  knowledge,  I  was  never  charged  with 
its  violation.  During  the  Presidential  contest  of  1848,  those  obligations  of 
neutrality  still  rested  upon  me.  For  a  year  afterwards,  I  was  not  called  upon 
to  do  any  official  act  displeasing  to  any  party  amongst  us.  This  interval 
I  employed  in  forming  the  best  opinion  I  could  of  public  men  and  measures, 
and  their  influence  upon  the  moral  and  industrial  interests  of  the  country. 
I  had  long  entertained  most  decided  convictions  in  favor  of  protecting 
American  labor,  in  favor  of  cheap  postage,  and  of  security  to  the  lives  and 
property  of  our  fellow-citizens  engaged  in  commerce.  But  a  new  question  had 
arisen, —  the  great  question  of  Freedom  or  Slavery  in  our  recently  acquired 
territories, —  and  this  question  I  deemed,  for  the  time  being,  to  be,  though 
not  exclusive  of  others,  yet  paramount  to  them.  Or  rather,  I  saw  that  nothing 
could  be  so  favorable  to  all  the  last  named  interests,  as  the  proper  adjustment 
of  the  first.  He  who  would  provide  for  the  welfare  of  mankind  must  first 
provide  for  their  liberty. 

Sympathizing,  then,  on  different  points  with  different  parties,  but  ex 
clusively  bound  to  none,  I  stood,  in  reference  to  the  great  question  of 
territorial  freedom  or  slavery,  in  the  position  of  the  true  mother  in  the  litiga 
tion  before  Solomon,  preferring  that  the  object  of  my  love  should  be  spared 
in  the  hands  of  any  one,  rather  than  perish  in  my  own. 

Our  present  difficulties,  which,  as  you  well  know,  have  arrested  the  gaze 
of  the  nation,  and  almost  suspended  the  legislative  functions  of  Congress, 
pertain  to  the  destiny  of  freedom  or  of  slavery,  to  which  our  new  territories 
are  to  be  consigned.  After  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana,  and  Florida,  and 
Texas,  for  the  aggrandizement  and  security  of  the  slave  power ;  after  the 
aboriginal  occupants  of  the  soil  of  the  Southern  States  have  been  slaughter 
ed,  or  driven  from  their  homes,  at  an  expense  of  not  less  than  a  hundred 
millions  of  dollars,  and  at  the  infinite  expense  of  our  national  reputation  for 
justice  and  humanity  ;  and  after  the  area  of  the  Slave  States  has  been  made 
almost  double  that  of  the  Free  States,  while  the  population  of  the  Free  is 
about  double  that  of  the  Slave ;  the  reasons  seem  so  strong  that  they  can 
hardly  be  made  stronger,  why  the  career  of  our  government  as  a  slavery- 
extending  power,  should  be  arrested.  On  the  other  hand,  the  oligarchy 
who  rule  the  South,  seeing  that,  notwithstanding  their  rich  and  almost 
Illimitable  domain,  they  are  rapidly  falling  behind  the  North  in  all  the  dis 
tinctive  elements  of  civilization  and  well-being, — industry,  temperance,  educa 
tion,  wealth, — not  only  defend  the  Upas  that  blasts  their  soil,  as  though  it 
were  the  Tree  of  Life,  but  seek  to  transplant  it  to  other  lands.  With 
but  about  three  slaves  to  a  square  mile, — three  millions  of  slaves  to  nearly 


a  million  of  square  miles, — they  say  they  are  too  crowded,  that  they  feel  a 
sense  of  suffocation,  and  must  have  more  room,  when  all  their  weakness  and 
pain  proceed,  not  from  the  limited  quantity,  but  from  the  bad  quality  of  the 
atmosphere  they  breathe.  Hence  the  war  with  Mexico,  commenced  and 
prosecuted  to  add  slave  territory  and  slave  States  to  the  Southern  section. 
Hence  the  refusal  to  accept  propositions  of  peace,  unless  territory  south  of 
latitude  36  deg.  30  min.  (the  Missouri  compromise  line,  so  called),  should 
be  ceded  to  us.  Hence  when  the  Mexican  negotiators  proposed  to  insert  a 
prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  treaty  of  cession,  and  declared  that  the  Inquisi 
tion  would  not  be  more  odious  to  the  American  people  than  the  reinstitution 
of  slavery  to  them,  our  minister,  Mr.  Trist,  told  them  he  would  not  consent 
to  such  a  prohibition,  though  they  would  cover  the  soil  a  foot  deep  with  gold. 
And  hence,  also,  the  determination  of  a  portion  of  the  Southern  members  of 
Congress,  to  stop  the  whole  machinery  of  government,  to  sacrifice  all  the 
great  interests  of  the  country,  and  assail  even  the  Union  itself,  unless 
slavery  shall  be  permitted  to  cross  the  Rio  Grande,  and  enter  the  vast 
regions  of  the  West,  as  it  heretofore  crossed  the  Mississippi  and  the  Sabine. 

Even  in  1846,  when  the  war  against  Mexico  was  declared,  all  men  of  sagac 
ity  foresaw  the  present  conflict.  Could  that  question  have  been  decided  on 
its  merits ;  or  could  the  institutions  to  be  planted  upon  the  territory  we  might 
acquire,  be  determined  by  the  unbiased  suffrages  of  the  American  people, 
no  war  would  have  been  declared,  and  no  territory  acquired.  But  the  great 
political  leaders  of  the  South  expected  to  make  up  both  for  their  numerical 
weakness  and  for  the  injustice  of  their  oause,  by  connecting  the  question  of 
slavery-extension  with  that  of  future  Presidential  elections,  and  with  the 
strife  of  parties.  They  promised  themselves  that  they  could  draw  over 
leading  Northern  men  to  their  support,  by  offering  them  the  Tantalus  cup  of 
Presidential  honors  ;  and  then  by  the  force  of  party  cohesion  and  discipline 
ensure  the  support  of  the  whole  descending-scale  of  office  expectants.  Early 
in  the  present  session  of  Congress,  it  was  distinctly  declared  from  a  high 
Southern  source,  that  the  South  must  do  most  for  those  Northern  men  who 
would  do  most  for  them.  A  few  words  will  make  it  apparent  how  faithfully 
this  plan  has  been  adhered  to,  and  how  successful  it  is  likely  to  become. 

No  Northern  Democrat,  opposed  to  slavery  extension,  could  expect  the  sup 
port  of  the  Southern  Democracy.  Hence,  Gen.  Cass  stept  promptly  forward, 
and  declared  in  his  Nicholson  letter,  that  Congress  had  no  power  to  exclude 
slavery  from  the  territories.  This  has  been  technically  called  his  "bid,"  or 
his  "first  bid."  It  was  deemed  satisfactory  by  the  South  ;  for,  according 
to  their  philosophy,  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  is  the  natural  or  normal 
relation  of  mankind  ;  and  therefore,  where  no  prohibition  of  it  exists, 
slavery  flows  into  free  territory,  as  water  runs  down  hill.  This  avowal  of 
Gen.  Cass  was  rendered  more  signal  and  valuable  to  the  South,  because, 


6 

for  the  greater  part  of  his  political  life,  he  had  taken  oaths,  held  offices  and 
administered  laws,  in  undeniable  contradiction  to  the  declaration  then  made. 
The  Ordinance  of  1787  was  expressly  recognized  by  the  First  (Congress, 
held  under  the  Constitution,  [See  ch.  8.]  It  was  modified  in  part,  and  con 
firmed  as  to  the  rest ;  and  in  holding  offices  under  this,  Gun.  (1ass  had  laid 
the  foundation  of  his  honors  and  his  fortune.  His  declaration,  therefore, 
against  all  interdiction  of  slavery,  made  under  circumstances  so  extraordi 
nary  and  in  contradiction  of  the  whole  tenor  of  his  past  life,  was  hailed  with 
acclamation  by  the  South,  and  he  was  unanimously  declared,  at  Baltimore, 
to  be  the  accepted  candidate  of  the  Democracy,  for  the  office  of  President. 
The  common  notion  is  that  a  man  shows  his  love  for  a  cause  by  the  amount 
of  sacrifice  he  will  make  for  it ;  and  as  consistency,  honor  and  truth,  are 
the  most  precious  elements  in  character,  who  could  sacrifice  more  than  he ! 

To  the  honor  of  the  Whig  party  be  it  said,  there  was  not  a  Northern  man 
to  be  found,  who,  to  gain  the  support  of  the  South,  would  espouse  its  pro- 
slavery  doctrines,  or  invent  any  new  reading  of  the  Constitution  to  give 
them  a  semblance  of  law.  Hence,  at  the  Philadelphia  Convention,  no 
Northern  Whig  received  even  so  much  as  a  complimentary  vote.  The  judicial 
eminence  of  Judge  McLean,  the  military  eminence  of  Gen.  Scott,  were 
passed  contemptuously  by ;  and  Mr.  Webster,  acknowledged  to  be  the  great 
est  statesman  of  the  age,  received  but  fourteen  votes,  out  of  almost  three 
hundred ;  and  twelve  of  these  were  from  Massachusetts.  Mr.  Webster  had 
spoken  more  eloquent  words  for  Liberty  than  any  other  living  man,  and  this 
distinguished  neglect  was  doubtless  intended  to  teach  him  the  lesson,  that 
the  path  to  Presidential  honors  did  not  lie  through  an  advocacy  of  the  rights 
of  man.  Gen.  Taylor  was  nominated  and  chosen.  He  was  understood  to 
take  neutral  ground.  Discountenancing  the  veto  power,  yet,  if  the  House 
of  Representatives,  who  are  chosen  directly  from  and  by  the  people,  and  the 
Senate  who  are  chosen  by  the  States,  will  pass  a  territorial  bill,  either  with 
or  without  a  prohibition  of  slavery,  he  will  approve  it.  This  is  the  common 
opinion,  and  I  have  no  doubt  of  its  correctness. 

Under  these  circumstances,  a  most  desperate  effort  was  made  at  the  close 
of  the  last  Congress  to  provide  a  government  for  the  territories,  with  no  pro- 
hibtion  of  slavery.  Had  Gen.  Cass  been  elected,  no  such  effort  would  have 
been  necessary,  for  he  was  pledged  to  veto  a  prohibition.  Gen.  Taylor  was 
supposed  to  be  pledged  to  an  opposite  course  ;  and  hence  the  struggle. 
The  facts  must  be  so  fresh  in  the  recollection  of  all  that  they  hardly  need  to 
be  recounted.  The  House  performed  its  duty  to  the  country  and  to  freedom, 
by  sending  territorial  bills  to  the  Senate,  containing  the  prohibitory  clause. 
The  Senate,  equalling  the  northern  by  its  southern  votes,  and  far  out-number 
ing  the  Whigs  by  its  Democrats,  left  those  bills  to  sleep  the  sleep  of  death 
upon  its  table.  But  during  the  closing  hours  of  the  session,  it  foisted  a  pro- 


vision  for  the  government  of  the  territories,  into  the  general  appropriation 
bill ;  and  held  out  the  menace  that  this  bill  should  not  pass  at  all,  unless  the 
territorial  clause  should  pass  with  it.  The  flagitiousness  of  this  proceeding, 
it  is  difficult  to  comprehend  and  impossible  to  describe.  The  appropriation 
bill  is  one  on  which  the  working,  and  even  the  continuance  of  the  govern 
ment  depend.  Without  it  the  machinery  of  the  State  must  cease  to  move. 
Contracts  by  the  government  to  pay  money  must  be  violated.  Officers  can 
not  obtain  their  salaries.  Families  must  be  left  without  subsistence.  If 
long  continued,  all  judges  would  resign  and  courts  be  broken  up  ;  and  when 
justice  should  cease  to  be  administered,  violence,  robbery,  and  every  form  of 
crime  would  run  riot  through  the  land. 

Besides,  an  appropriation  bill  and  a  bill  for  the  government  of  territories, 
have  no  congruity  with  each  other ;  they  are  not  relevant ;  neither  is  ger 
mane  to  the  other.  Every  one  knows  it  to  be  a  common  parliamentary  rule 
that  when  a  proposition  is  submitted  which  is  susceptible  of  division,  any 
one  member  has  a  right  to  demand  it.  All  bills,  too,  for  raising  revenue 
must,  by  the  Constitution,  originate  in  the  House ;  and  the  House  has  as 
much  right  to  interfere  to  prevent  the  Senate  from  ratifying  a  treaty,  as  the 
Senate  has  to  obstruct  the  passage  of  a  revenue  bill,  by  adding  to  it  ex 
traneous  provisions.  It  was  this  effort  on1  the  part  of  the  Senate  to  in 
corporate  into  the  appropriation  bill  a  provision  most  unrighteous  in  itself 
and  most  odious  to  the  free  sentiments  of  the  North,  which  led  to  the  pro 
tracted  session  on  the  night  of  the  3d  of  March,  1849.  The  course  of  the 
pro-slavery  leaders,  on  that  occasion,  resembled  that  of  a  madman  who  should 
seize  a  torch,  and  stand  over  the  magazine  of  a  ship,  and  proclaim  that  he 
would  send  men  and  vessel  to  destruction,  unless  they  would  steer  for  his 
port.  A  portion  of  the  House  confederated  with  the  majority  of  the  Senate, 
in  this  unprincipled  machination  ;  but  the  larger  number  stood  undaunted, 
and  after  perils  such  as  so  precious  an  interest  never  before  encountered,  the 
pro-slavery  amendment  was  stricken  out,  and  its  champions  were  foiled. 
Through  that  memorable  night,  the  friends  of  freedom  wrestled  like  Jacob 
with  the  angel  of  God,  and  though  the  session  did  not  close  until  the  sun  of 
a  Sabbath  morning  shone  full  into  the  windows  of  the  Capitol,  yet  a  holier 
work  never  was  done  on  that  holy  day. 

It  was  with  a  joy  fesuch  as  no  words  can  ever  express,  that  I  saw  the 
territories  rescued  from  the  clutch  of  slavery  by  the  expiration  of  the 
Thirtieth  Congress.  I  felt  confident  that  when  the  Thirty-first  Congress 
should  assemble,  it  would  be  under  better  auspices,  and  with  a  stronger 
phalanx  on  the  side  of  freedom.  In  regard  to  California,  those  hopes  have 
been  fulfilled  ;  but  I  proceed  to  state  how  they  have  been  nearly  extinguish 
ed  in  regard  to  the  residue  of  the  territory. 

Our  first  disaster  was  the  election  of  a  most  adroit,  talented  and  zealous 


pro-slavery  Speaker.  A  better  organ  for  the  accomplishment  of  their 
purposes  the  friends  of  Slavery  could  not  have  found,  nor  the  friends  of 
Freedom  a  more  formidable  opponent.  Whilst  the  pro-slavery  champions 
of  the  South,  almost  without  distinction  of  party,  exulted  over  this  triumph, 
it  has  been  the  occasion  of  most  lamentable  criminations  and  recriminations 
at  the  North.  They  abandon  all  distinctions  of  Whig  or  Democrat  for  the 
cause  of  Slavery;  would  to  God  we  could  do  as  much  for  the  cause  of 
Freedom. 

The  choice  of  a  pro-slavery  Speaker  was  immediately  followed  by  the 
appointment  of  most  ultra  pro-slavery  committees.  Some  Free  Soil  members, 
it  is  true,  were  placed  upon  these  committees ;  but  in  this  the  Speaker  only 
carried  out  more  fully  his  own  purposes  and  those  of  his  party,  by  putting 
what  they  considered  as  insane  men  into  close  custody,  instead  of  letting 
them  run  at  large.  He  showed,  however,  either  a  want  of  courage  in  him 
self,  or  of  confidence  in  his  chosen  guards  ;  for,  on  the  District  of  Columbia 
committee  he  detailed  a  file  of  five,  on  the  Judiciary  committee  a  file  of  four, 
and  on  the  Territorial  committee  a  file  of  six  strong  pro-slavery  men  for  the 
safe  keeping  of  one  Free  Soiler. 

Within  an  hour  after  the  House  was  organized,  Mr.  Root  of  Ohio  sub 
mitted  a  resolution,  instructing  the  Committee  on  Territories  to  report 
territorial  bills,  prohibiting  slavery.  Many  true  friends  to  freedom  believed 
this  movement  to  be  ill-timed  and  unfortunate  ;  and  though  the  House  then 
refused,  by  a  handsome  vote,  to  lay  the  resolution  on  the  table,  yet  when  it 
came  up  for  consideration  again,  the  first  decision  was  reversed  by  about 
the  same  majority.  There  is  abundant  proof  that  the  latter  vote  did  not 
express  the  true  sentiment  of  the  House.  Not  a  few  voted  against  the 
resolution  avowedly  because  of  its  paternity — thus  spiting  a  noble  son  on 
account  of  its  obnoxious  father.  Others  repented  of  their  votes  as  soon  as 
they  came  to  reflect  that  the  record  would  go  where  their  explanation  could 
not  accompany  it. 

But  unfortunately,  it  was  too  late.  There  stands  the  record,  to  survive 
through  all  time,  and  to  be  read  of  all  men.  The  champions  of  slavery 
seized  upon  this  vote  as  a  propitious  omen.  They  derided  and  scouted  the 
proviso  with  a  fierceness  unknown  before.  They  shouted  their  threats  of 
disunion  with  a  more  defiant  tone,  should  any  attempt  at  what  they  called  its 
resurrection,  be  made.  A  speech  was  delivered,  in  which  a  massacre  of  a 
majority  of  the  House  was  distinctly  shadowed  forth,  so  that  not  "  a  quorum 
should  be  left  to  do  business."  The  effect  of  that  vote  was  almost  as  bad  as 
though  it  meant  what  it  said. 

At  a  later  day,  when  a  bill  for  the  admission  of  California  was  presented, 
the  tactics  of  delay  were  resorted  to,  and  midnight  found  us  calling  the  yeas 


9 

and  nays,  for  more  than  the  thirtieth  time,  on  questions  whose  frivolousness 
and  vexatiousness  cannot  be  indicated  by  numbers. 

The  proceedings  in  the  Senate,  however,  are  those  which  now  threaten  the 
most  disastrous  consequences.  Early  in  the  session,  in  order  to  bring  his  North 
ern  friends  up  to  the  doctrine  that  it  is  unconstitutional  to  legislate  upon  slavery 
in  the  territories,  Gen.  Cass  made  a  speech,  in  which  he  denies  that  Congress 
has  any  power,  under  any  circumstances,  to  pass  any  law  respecting  their 
inhabitants.  According  to  that  speech,  the  United  States  stands  in  the  re 
lation  of  a  foreign  government  to  the  people  of  its  own  territories ;  and  if 
they  set  up  a  king  or  establish  a  religion,  we  cannot  help  it ;  for  we  have  no 
more  power  or  right  to  control  them,  than  we  have  the  subjects  of  Great 
Britain,  or  the  citizens  of  France.  It  has  been  said  that  the  doctrine  of 
Gen.  Cass  and  that  of  Gen.  Taylor,  on  this  subject,  are  identical ;  but  there 
is  this  all-important  difference  between  them  :  Gen.  Taylor  maintains  the  right 
of  Congress  to  legislate  for  the  territories,  and  will  doubtless  approve  any 
bill  for  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  them ;  but  Gen.  Cass,  denying  this  right 
in  Congress,  would,  if  President,  veto  such  a  bill.  He,  therefore,  would 
leave  the  territories  open  to  be  invaded  and  possessed  by  slavery ;  and  in 
Southern  law  and  practice,  possession  is  more  than  nine  points. 

Next  came  Mr.  Clay's  compromise  resolutions,  so  called.  By  these, 
California  was  to  be  admitted  as  a  State ;  the  territories  organized  without  any 
restriction  upon  slavery ;  the  Southwestern  boundary  of  Texas  to  be  ex 
tended  to  the  Rio  Grande ;  apart  of  her  twelve  or  fifteen  million  debt  to  be 
paid  by  the  United  States,  on  condition  of  her  abandoning  her  claim  to  that 
part  of  New  Mexico  which  lies  east  of  the  Rio  Grande ;  the  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  the  inviolability  of  slavery  in 
the  District  during  the  good  pleasure  of  Maryland  and  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  District ;  more  effectual  provision  for  the  restitution  of  fugitive  slaves, 
and  free  traffic  in  slaves  forever  between  the  States,  unless  forbidden  by 
themselves. 

A  compromise  is  a  settlement  of  difficulties  by  mutual  concessions.  Let 
us  examine  the  mutuality  of  the  concessions  which  Mr.  Clay's  resolutions 
propose. 

In  the  first  place,  California  is  to  be  permitted  to  remain  free,  if  the  ter 
ritories  of  New  Mexico  and  Utah  may  be  opened  to  slavery.  But  Califor 
nia  is  free  already ;  free  by  her  own  act ;  free  without  any  concession  of 
theirs,  and  without  any  grace  but  the  grace  of  God.  It  is  mainly  occupied 
by  a  Northern  population,  who  do  their  own  work,  with  their  own  hands,  or 
their  own  brains.  Fifty  hardy  gold  diggers  from  the  North  will  never  stand 
all  day  knee-deep  in  water,  shovel  earth,  rock  washers,  &c.,  under  a  broiling 
sun,  and  see  a  man  with  his  fifty  slaves  standing  under  the  shade  of  a  tree, 
or  having  an  umbrella  held  over  his  head,  with  whip  in  hand,  and  without 


10 

wetting  his  dainty  glove,  or  soiling  his  japanned  boot,  pocket  as  much  at 
night  as  the  whole  of  them  together.  Or  rather,  they  will  never  suffer 
institutions  to  exist  which  tolerate  such  unrighteousness.  California,  there 
fore,  is  free  ;  as  free  as  Massachusetts  ;  and  Mr.  Clay  might  as  well  have  said 
in  terms,  that,  whereas  Massachusetts  is  free,  therefore  New  Mexico  and 
Utah  shall  be  slave,  or  run  the  hazard  of  being  so. 

The  next  point  of  Mr.  Clay's  compromise  is,  that  Texas  shall  extend  her 
Southwestern  boundary  from  or  near  the  Nueces  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  shall 
receive,  probably,  some  six  or  eight  millions  of  dollars  for  withdrawing  her 
claim  to  that  part  of  New  Mexico  which  lies  east  of  the  last  named  river. 
Now,  Texas  has  no  rightful  or  plausible  claim  to  a  foot  of  all  this  territory. 
But  suppose  it  to  be  a  subject  of  doubt,  and  therefore  of  compromise.  The 
mutuality,  then,  consists  in  dividing  the  whole  territory  claimed  by  Texas, 
and  then  giving  her  a  valid  title  to  one  portion  of  it,  and  paying  her  for  all 
the  rest.  Texas,  or, — what  in  this  connection  is  the  same  thing, — slavery, 
surrenders  absolutely  nothing,  gets  a  good  title  to  some  hundred  thousand 
square  miles  of  territory,  and  pay  for  as  much  more  ! 

But  what  renders  it  almost  incredible  that  any  man  could  soberly  submit 
such  a  proposition  and  dare  to  call  it  a  compromise,  is  this :  All  that  part  of  New 
Mexico  which  Texas  claims,  and  which  lies  between  the  parallels  of  36°  30' 
and  4'2°,  is,  by  the  Resolutions  of  Annexation,  to  be  forever  free.  I  shall 
consider  the  constitutionality  of  these  resolutions  by  and  by ;  I  now  treat 
them  as  valid.  Now  the  compromise  proposes  to  buy  this  territory,  so 
secured  to  freedom,  and  annex  it  to  New  Mexico,  which  is  to  be  left  open  to 
slavery.  We  are  to  peril  all  the  broad  region  between  36°  30'  and  42°,  and 
pay  Texas  some  six  or  eight  millions  of  dollars  for  the  privilege  of  doing  so  ! 
Mr.  Clay  is  not  less  eminent  for  his  statesmanship  than  for  his  waggery.  Were 
he  to  succeed  in  playing  off  this  practical  joke  upon  the  North,  and  were  it 
not  for  the  horrible  consequences  which  it  would  involve,  a  roar  of  laughter, 
like  a  feu  de  joie,  would  run  down  the  course  of  the  ages.  As  it  is,  the 
laughter  will  be  "  Else  where. " 

The  next  point  pertains  to  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade,  and  the  per 
petuity  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  This  District  has  an  area 
of  about  fifty  square  miles ;  and  Mr.  Clay  proposes,  in  consideration  of 
transferring  its  slave  marts  to  Alexandria,  on  the  Virginia  side,  or  to  some 
convenient  place  in  Montgomery  or  Prince  George's  county,  on  the  Mary 
land  side,  to  divest  Congress  forever  of  its  right  of  "  exclusive  legislation  " 
over  it.  Should  this  plan  prevail,  the  perpetuity  of  slavery  in  the  District 
will  be  defended  by  more  unassailable  and  impregnable  barriers  than  any 
other  institution  in  Christendom.  The  President  has  a  veto  upon  Congress; 
but  twd-thirdg  of  both  houses  may  still  pass  any  law,  notwithstanding  his 
diss«-,nt.  Mr.  Clay  proposes  to  give,  both  to  Maryland  and  to  the  citizens  of 


11 

the  District,  a  veto  on  this  subject ;  —  an  absolute  veto,  not  a  qualified  one, 
like  that  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  but  one  that  will  control, 
not  majorities  merely,  but  an  absolute  unanimity  in  both  branches  of  Con 
gress.  By  his  plan,  therefore,  three  separate,  independent  powers  are 
to  have  a  veto  upon  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
And  not  only  so,  but  while  it  will  require  their  joint  or  concurrent  action 
to  abolish  the  institution,  any  one  of  them  can  preserve  it.  The  laws  of  the 
Medes  and  Persians  had  no  such  guaranties  for  perpetuity  as  this. 

Mr.  Clay's  last  point  is  really  too  facetious.  So  solemn  a  subject  does 
not  permit  such  long-continued  levity,  however  it  may  be  masked  by  sobriety 
of  countenance.  It  is  that  Congress  shall  make  more  effectual  provision  for 
the  capture  and  delivery  of  fugitive  slaves  ;  and,  as  an  equivalent  for  this,  it 
shall  bind  itself  never  to  interfere  with  the  inter-State  traffic  in  slaves.  We 
are  to  catch  their  slaves,  and,  as  though  that  were  a  grateful  privilege  to  us, 
we  are  to  allow  them  free  commerce  in  slaves,  coastwise  or  inland.  By  this 
means,  slaves  can  be  transported  to  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  some 
hundreds  of  miles  up  that  river,  towards  New  Mexico,  instead  of  being 
driven  in  coffles  across  the  country.  The  compromise  is,  that  for  every 
slave  we  catch,  we  are  to  facilitate  the  passage  of  a  hundred  into  New 
Mexico. 

Such  is  the  mutuality  of  Mr.  Clay's  compromises.  They  are  such  com 
promises  as  the  wolf  offers  to  the  lamb,  or  the  vulture  to  the  dove.  They 
make  the  rightful  admission  of  California  into  the  Union,  with  her  free  con 
stitution,  contingent  upon  opening  the  new  territories  to  slavery;  they 
ratify  one  part  of  the  predatory  claim  of  Texas,  and  propose  to  give  her  mil 
lions  for  the  other  part ;  they  give  an  unconditional  veto  to  the  State  of 
Maryland  and  to  the  citizens  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  over  a  unanimous 
vote  of  both  Houses  of  Congress,  even  when  approved  by~the  President ;  in 
connection  with  Mr.  Butler's  bill  and  Mr.  Mason's  amendments,  they  expose 
our  white  citizens  to  grievous  penalties  and  imprisonments  for  not  doing 
what  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has  decided  we  are  not  bound 
to  do,  in  relation  to  fugitive  slaves,  and  they  offer  our  colored  citizens  to 
be  kidnapped  and  spirited  away  into  bondage;  and  they  foreclose,  in 
favor  of  the  South,  the  disputed  question  of  the  inter-State  commerce  in 
slaves.  In  one  particular  only  do  they  appear  to  concede  anything  to  North 
ern  rights,  or  Northern  convictions,  or  Northern  feelings.  They  propose  to 
transfer  the  District  of  Columbia  slave-trade  across  an  ideal  line  into 
Virginia  or  into  Maryland,  so  that  the  slave-planter  or  slave-trader,  when  he 
comes  to  our  American  Congo  to  replenish  his  stock  of  human  cattle,  shall 
be  obliged  to  go  a  mile  or  two,  to  the  slave-marts,  instead  of  walking  down 
Pennsylvania  Avenue.  I  deem  this  to  be  no  concession.  If  it  is  honorable 
to  produce  corn  and  cotton,  it  is  honorable  to  buy  and  sell  them ;  and,  if  it 


12 

is  honorable  to  hold  beings  created  in  God's  image,  in  slavery,  it  is  hon 
orable  to  stand  between  the  producer  and  the  consumer,  and  to  make  mer 
chandise  of  the  bodies  and  the  souls  of  men.  Let  this  Light  of  the  Age  be 
set  upon  a  hill  that  all  nations  may  behold  it. 

I  will  refer  to  Mr.  Bell's  resolutions  no  further  than  to  say  that  they  pro 
pose  the  formation  of  three  slaves  States  out  of  what  is  now  claimed  by 
Texas,  one  of  which  is  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union  forthwith  as  an  offset 
to  California. 

Mr.  Buchanan  has  not  regarded  the  movements  of  his  rival,  Gen.  Cass, 
with  indifference.  He  has  spent  a  considerable  portion  of  the  winter  in 
Washington,  and  it  is  understood  that  he  holds  out  the  Missouri  compromise 
line,  from  the  Western  boundary  of  Missouri  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  as  his 
lune  to  the  South,  for  their  favorable  regards  in  the  ensuing  Presidential 
contest. 

In  a  chronological  order  I  must  now  consider  some  vitally  important  views, 
which  have  been  submitted  by  some  members  in  the  House,  and  by  Mr. 
Webster  and  others  in  the  Senate.  In  mentioning  the  name  of  this  great 
statesman,  and  in  avowing  that  I  am  one  among  the  many  whom  his  recently 
expressed  opinions  have  failed  to  convince,  it  is  due  to  myself,  however  in 
different  it  may  be  to  him  or  to  his  friends,  that  I  should  express  my  admi 
ration  of  his  powers,  my  gratitude  for  his  past  services,  and  the  diffidence 
with  which  I  dissented,  at  first,  from  his  views.  But  I  have  pondered  upon 
them  long,  and  the  longer  I  have  pondered,  the  more  questionable  they  ap 
pear.  I  shall  therefore  venture  upon  the  perilous  task  of  inquiring  into  their 
correctness ;  and  while  I  do  it  with  the  deference  and  respect  which  belong 
to  his  character,  I  shall  do  it  also  with  that  fidelity  to  conscience  and  to  judg 
ment  that  belong  to  mine.  He  is  great,  but  truth  is  greater  than  us  all. 

I  shall  confine  myself  mainly,  and  perhaps  wholly,  to  Mr.  Webster's 
views,  because  he  has  argued  the  cause  of  the  South  with  vastly  more  abili 
ty  than  it  has  been  argued  by  any.  one  among  themselves.  If  his  conclu 
sions,  then,  be  not  tenable,  their  case  is  lost.* 

Mr.  Webster  casts  away  the  "  Proviso"  altogether.  He  says  "if  a  res 
olution  or  a  law  were  now  before  us  to  provide  a  territorial  government 
for  New  Mexico,  I  would  not  vote  to  put  any  prohibition  into  it  what 
ever  ;"  p.  44.  The  reason  given  is,  that  slavery  is  already  excluded  from 
"  California  and  New  Mexico  "  "  by  the  law  of  nature,  of  physical  geography, 
the  law  of  the  formation  of  the  earth."  p.  42.  "  California  and  New  Mex 
ico  are  Asiatic  in  their  formation  and  scenery.  They  are  composed  of  vast 

*A11  my  quotations  from  Mr.  Webster  are  taken  from  the  edition  of  his  speech 
which  he  dedicated  to  the  "PEOPLE  OF  MASSACHUSETTS,"  March  18,  1850. 
Among  the  numerous  readings  which  have  appeared,  I  suppose  this  to  be  the 
most  authentic. 


13 

ridges  of  mountains  of  enormous  height,  with  broken  ridges  and  deep  val 
leys  ;"  p.  43. 

Now  this  is  drawing  moral  conclusions  from  physical  premises.  It  is 
arguing  from  physics  to  metaphysics.  It  is  determining  the  law  of  the  spirit 
by  geographical  phenomena.  It  is  undertaking  to  settle  by  mountains  and 
rivers,  and  not  by  the  Ten  Commandments,  a  great  question  of  human  duty. 
It  abandons  the  second  commandment  of  Christ  and  all  Bills  of  Rights 
enacted  in  conformity  thereto,  and  leaves  our  obligations  to  our  "  neighbor" 
to  be  determined  by  the  accidents  of  earth  and  water  and  air.  To  ascertain 
whether  a  people  will  obey  the  divine  command,  and  do  to  others  as  they 
would  be  done  by,  it  looks  at  the  thermometer.  What  a  problem  would  this 
be  ?  "  Required  the  height  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  at  which  the  oppressor 
'  will  undo  the  heavy  burdens  and  let  the  oppressed  go  free,  and  break  every 
yoke,' — to  be  determined  barometrically.''  Alas !  this  cannot  be  done. 
Slavery  depends,  not  upon  Climate,  but  upon  Conscience.  Wherever  the 
wicked  passions  of  the  human  heart  can  go,  there  slavery  can  go.  Slavery 
is  an  effect.  Avarice,  sloth,  pride,  and  the  love  of  domination  are  its  cause. 
In  ascending  mountain  sides,  at  what  altitude  do  men  leave  these  passions  be 
hind  them  V  Different  vegetable  growths  are  to  be  found  at  different  heights, 
depending  also  upon  the  zone.  This  I  can  understand.  There  is  the  altitude 
of  the  palm,  the  altitude  of  the  oak,  the  altitude  of  the  pine,  and  far  above 
them  all  the  line  of  perpetual  snow.  But  in  regard  to  innocence  and  guilt, 
where  is  the  white  line  f  How  high  up  can  a  slave-holder  go  and  not  lose  his 
free  agency?  At  what  elevation  will  the  whip  fall  from  the  hand  of  the  mas 
ter,  and  the  fetter  from  the  limbs  of  the  slave?  There  is  no  such  point.  Free 
dom  and  slavery  on  the  one  hand,  and  climate  and  geology  on  the  other,  are 
incommensurable  quantities.  We  might  as  well  attempt  to  determine  a  ques 
tion  in  theology  by  the  cube  root,  or  a  question  in  ethics  by  the  Black  Art. 
Slavery  being  a  crime  founded  upon  human  passions  can  go  wherever  those 
passions  are  unrestrained.  It  has  existed  in  Asia  from  the  earliest  ages, 
notwithstanding  its  "  formation  and  scenery."  It  labors  and  groans  on  the 
flanks  of  the  Ural  mountains  now.  There  are  to-day  forty-eight  millions  of 
slaves  in  Russia,  not  one  rood  of  which  comes  down  so  low  as  the  Northern 
boundary  of  California  and  New  Mexico. 

Had  Mr.  Webster's  philosophy  been  correct,  then  California  was  at  super 
fluous  pains  when  she  incorporated  the  Ordinance  of  1787  into  her  Consti 
tution.  Instead  of  saying  that  "  slavery  and  involuntary  servitude,  (except 
for  crime,)  shall  be  forever  prohibited,"  she  should  have  said  "  Whereas  by 
a  law  of  nature,  of  physical  geography,  the  law  of  the  formation  of  the 
earth," — "slavery  cannot  exist  in  California,"  therefore  we  will  not  "re 
affirm  an  ordinance  and  statute,  nor  reenact  the  will  of  God." 

Should  it  be  said  that  slavery  will  not  go  into  the  new  territories,  because 


14 

it  i^  unprofitable,  I  ask  whore  is  it  profitable?  Where  is  ignorance  so 
profitable  as  knowledge?  Where  is  ungodliness  gain,  even  for  the  things 
of  this  life?  How  little  is  the  hand  worth  at  one  end  of  an  arm,  if  there  is 
not  a  brain  at  the  other?  Do  not  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and 
other  Srriu-s,  furnish  witnesses  by  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  that 
slavery  impoverishes  ?  Yet  with  what  enthusiasm  they  cherish' it.  Generally, 
ignorance  is  a  necessary  concomitant  of  slavery.  Of  white  persons,  over 
twenty  years  of  age,  unable  to  read  and  write,  there  were,  according  to  the 
last  census,  58,787  in  Virginia,  56,609  in  North  Carolina,  58,513  in  Ten 
nessee,  and  so  forth.  I  have  a  letter  before  me  received  this  morning, 
dated  in  Indiana,  in  which  the  writer  says  he  removed  from  North  Carolina, 
in  180-2,  when  he  was  fourteen  years  oldx  and  at  that  time  he  had  never 
seen  a  newspaper  in  his  life.  Can  there  be  genius,  the  inventive  talent,  or 
profitable  labor,  where  ignorance  is  so  dense  ?  Can  the-  oppression  that 
tramples  out  voluntary  industry,  intelligence,  enterprise,  and  the  desire  of 
independence,  conduce  to  riches  ?  Yet  this  is  done  wherever  slavery  exists, 
and  is  part  and  parcel  of  its  working.  Is  any  other  form  of  robbery  profit 
able  ?  Yet  individuals  and  communities  have  practised  it  and  lived  by  it, 
and  we  may  as  well  rely  upon  a  "  law  of  physical  geography  'T  to  arrest  the 
one  as  the  other.  It  is  not  poetry,  but  literal  truth,  that  the  breath  of  the 
slave  blasts  vegetation,  his  tears  poison  the  earth,  and  his  groans  strike  it 
with  stertility.  It  would  be  easy  to  show  why  the  master  does  not  abandon 
slavery,  even  amid  the  desolation  with  which  it  has  surrounded  him.  There 
is  a  combination  of  poverty  and  pride,  which  slavery  produces,  on  the  doc 
trine  of  natural  appetence,  and  which,  therefore,  it  exactly  fits.  The  help 
lessness  of  the  master  in  regard  to  all  personal  wants,  seems  to  necessitate 
the  slavery  that  has  begotten  it.  All  moral  and  religious  principles  are  low 
ered  till  they  conform  to  the  daily  practice.  Custom  blinds  conscience, 
until,  without  any  attempt  to  emancipate  or  ameliorate  their  victims,  men 
can  preach  and  pray  and  hold  slaves,  as  Hamlet's  grave-digger  jests  and 
sings  while  he  turns  up  skulls. 

But  slavery  cannot  go  into  California  or  New  Mexico,  because  their  staple 
productions  are  not  "  tobacco,  corn,  cotton  or  rice;"  p.  44.  These  are 
agricultural  products.  But  is  slave  labor  confined  to  agriculture  ?  Suppose 
that  predial  slavery  will  not  become  common  in  the  new  territories.  Cannot 
menial  V  If  slaves  cannot  do  field-work,  cannot  they  do  house-work?  There 
is  an  opening  for  a  hundred  thousand  slaves  to-day,  and  in  the  new  territo 
ries,  for  purposes  of  domestic  labor.  And  beyond  this,  let  me  ask,  who 
[  ea  ;my  such  geologic  vision  that,  at  the  distance  of  a  thousand  miles,  he 
can  penetrate  the  valleys  and  gorges  of  New  Mexico,  and  say  that  gold  will 
not  yet  be  found  there  as  it  is  in  California, — not  in  sand  and  gravel  only, 
but  in  forty-eight  pounders  and  in  fifty-sixes  ?  This  is  the  very  kind  of 


15 

labor  on  which  slaves,  in  all  time,  have  been  so  extensively  employed, — the 
very  labor  on  which  a  million  of  slaves  in  Hispaniola  lost  their  lives,  within 
a  few  years  after  its  discovery  by  Columbus.  Gold  deposits  are  now  worked 
within  twenty-five  miles  of  Santa  Fe.  The  last  account  which  I  have  seen, 
of  a  company  of  emigrants  passing  from  Santa  Fe  to  California  by  the  river 
Gila,  announces  rich  discoveries  of  gold  upon  that  river.  A  fellow-citizen  of 
mine  has  just  returned  home,  who  says  he  saw  a  slave  sold  at  the  mines  in  Cali 
fornia,  in  September  last.  As  yet,  the  distant  regions  of  the  Gila  and  the 
Colorado  cannot  be  worked,  because  of  the  Apaches,  the  Utahs,  and  other 
tribes  of  Indians.  But  admit  slavery  there,  and  the  power  of  the  govern 
ment  will  be  invoked  to  exterminate  these  Indians,  as  it  was  before  to  exter 
minate  the  Chcrokees  and  Seminoles, — not  to  drive  them  beyond  the  Missis 
sippi,  but  beyond  the  Styx.  A  few  days  since  a  letter  was  published  in  the 
papers,  dated  on  boaad  a  steamer  descending  the  Mississippi,  which  stated 
that  a  considerable  number  of  slaves  were  on  board,  bound  for  California, 
uuder  an  agreement  with  their  masters  that  they  should  be  free  after  serving 
two  years  at  the  mines.  We  know,  too,  that  the  reason  assigned  for  incor 
porating  a  provision  in  the  constitution  of  California,  authorizing  its  Legis 
lature  to  pass  laws  for  the  exclusion  of  free  blacks  from  the  State,  was  that 
slaves  would  be  brought  there  under  this  very  form  of  agreement,  and,  by  and 
by,  the  country  would  be  overspread  by  people  of  color  who  had  bought  their 
freedom.  The  sagacious  men  who  framed  the  California  constitution  came  from 
all  parts  of  the  territory,  and,  being  collected  on  the  spot,  having  surveyed 
all  its  mountains,  having  breathed  its  air  at  all  temperatures,  and  turned  up 
its  golden  soil, — these  men  had  never  discovered  any  "  law  of  physical  geog 
raphy  "  which  the  fell  spirit  of  slavery  could  not  transgress.  Slaves  were 
carried  into  Oregon,  ten  degrees  of  latitude  higher  up.  Its  colonists  reen- 
acted  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  before  Congress  gave  them  a  territorial  gov 
ernment.  In  the  territorial  government  that  was  given  them,  the  prohibi 
tion  was  inserted ;  and  President  Polk  signed  the  bill,  with  an  express 
protest,  that  he  ratified  this  exclusion  of  slavery  only  because  the  country 
lay  north  of  the  Missouri  compromise  line ;  but  declared  that,  had  it  em 
braced  the  very  region  in  question,  he  would  have  vetoed  the  bill. 

Gen.  Cass  never  took  the  ground  that  slavery  could  not  exist  in  the  new 
territories ;  and  no  inconsiderable  part  of  the  opposition  made  to  him  in 
Massachusetts  and  in  other  free  States,  was  placed  expressly  upon  the 
ground  that  he  would  not  prohibit  it.  Mr.  Webster,  in  his  Marshfield  speech, 
Sept.  1,  1848,  opposed  the  election  of  Gen.  Cass,  because,  through  his  recre 
ancy  to  Northern  principles,  slavery  would  invade  the  territories.  This  was 
expressed  with  his  usual  clearness  and  force,  as  follows : 

"  He,  [Gen.  Cass,]  will  surely  have  the  Senate;  and  with  the  patronage 
of  the  government,  with  every  interest  that  he,  as  a  Northern  man,  can  bring 


16 

to  bear,  cooperaring  with  every  interest  that  the  South  can  bring  to  bear, 
we  cry  safety  before  we  are  out  of  the  woods,  if  we  feel  that  there  is  no 
danger  as  to  these  new  territories." 

Yet  Mr.  Webster  now  says  that  to  support  the  "  Proviso,"  would  "do 
disgrace  to  his  own  understanding;"  p.  46. 

During  the  same  campaign,  also,  the  Honorable  Rufus  Choate,  one  of  the 
most  eloquent  men  in  New  England,  and  known  to  be  the  personal  friend 
of  Mr.  Webster,  delivered  a  speech  at  Salem,  in  which  the  following 
passage  occurs : 

"  It  is  the  passage  of  a  law  to  say  that  California  and  New  Mexico  shall 
remain  forever  free.  That  is,  fellow-citizens,  undoubtedly,  an  object  of 
great  and  transcendent  importance ;  for  there  is  none  who  will  deny  that  we 
should  go  up  to  the  very  limits  of  the  Constitution  itself,  and  with  the  wis 
dom  of  the  wisest,  and  zeal  of  the  most  zealous,  should  unite  to  accomplish 
this  great  object,  and  to  defeat  the  always  detested,  and  forever  to  be  de 
tested  object  of  the  dark  ambition  of  that  candidate  of  the  Baltimore  Con 
vention,  who  has  ventured  to  pledge  himself  in  advance  that  he  will  veto 
the  future  law  of  freedom ;  and  may  God  avert  the  madness  of  all  those 
who  hate  slavery  and  love  freedom,  that  would  unite  in  putting  him  in  the 
place  where  his  thrice  accursed  pledge  may  be  redeemed  !  ....  Is 
there  a  Whig  upon  this  floor  who  doubts  that  the  strength  of  the  Whig  party 
next  March  will  ensure  freedom  to  California  and  New  Mexico,  if  by  the 
Constitution  they  are  entitled  to  freedom  at  all?  Is  there  a  member  of 
Congress  that  would  not  vote  for  freedom  ?  You  know  there  is  not  one. 
Did  not  every  Whig  member  of  Congress  from  the  free  States  vote  at  the 
last  session  for  freedom  ?  You  know  that  every  man  of  them  returned  home 
covered  with  the  thanks  of  his  constituents  for  that  vote.  Is  there  a  single 
Whig  constituency,  in  any  free  State  in  this  country,  that  would  return  any 
man  that  would  not  vote  for  freedom  ?  Do  you  believe  that  Daniel  Webster 
himself  could  be  returned  if  there  was  the  least  doubt  upon  the  question?  " 

Mr.  Choate  then  adds:  —  "  Upon  this  question  alone,  we  always  differ 
from  those  Whigs  of  the  South  ;  and  on  that  one,  we  propose  simply  to  vote 
them  down"  Mr.  Webster  now  says  he  will  not  join  in  voting  them 
down. 

Under  such  circumstances  is  it  frivolous  or  captious  to  ask  for  something 
more  than  a  dogmatic  assertion  that  slavery  cannot  impregnate  these  new 
regions,  and  cause  them  to  breed  monsters  forever  ?  On  a  subject  of  such 
infinite  importance  I  cannot  be  satisfied  with  a  dictum  ;  I  want  a  demonstra 
tion.  I  cannot  accept  the  prophecy  without  inquiring  what  spirit  inspired 
the  prophet.  As  a  revelation  from  heaven  it  would  be  most  delightful ;  but, 
as  it  conflicts  with  all  human  experience,  it  requires  at  least  one  undoubted 
miracle  to  attest  the  divinity  of  its  origin. 


17 

According  to  the  last  census,  there  were  more  than  eight  thousand 
persons  of  African  blood  in  Massachusetts.  Abolish  the  moral  and  religious 
convictions  of  our  people,  let  slavery  appear  to  be  in  their  sight  not  only 
lawful  and  creditable,  but  desirable  as  a  badge  of  aristocratic  distinction,  and 
as  a  "  political,  social,  moral  and  religious  blessing,"  and  what  obstacle 
would  prevent  these  eight  thousand  persons  from  being  turned  into  slaves , 
on  any  day,  by  the  easy/  cheap  and  short-hand  kidnapping  of  a  legislative 
act  ?  Africans  can  exist  here,  for  the  best  of  all  reasons, — they  do  exist  here. 
A  state  of  slavery  would  not  stop  their  respiration,  nor  cause  them  to  vanish 
"  into  thin  air."  Think,  for  a  moment,  of  the  complaints  we  constantly  hear 
in  certain  circles,  of  the  difficulty  and  vexatiousness  of  commanding  domestic 
service.  If  no  moral  or  religious  objection  existed  against  holding  slaves, 
would  not  many  of  those  respectable  and  opulent  gentlemen  who  sign 
ed  the  letter  of  thanks  to  Mr.  Webster,  and  hundreds  of  others  indeed, 
instead  of  applying  to  intelligence  offices,  or  visiting  emigrant  ships  for 
domestics,  as  we  call  them,  go  at  once  to  the  auction-room  and  buy  a  man 
or  a  woman  with  as  little  hesitancy  or  compunction  as  they  now  send  to 
Brighton  for  beeve's,  or  go  to  Tattersall's  for  a  horse  ?  If  the  cold  of  the 
higher  latitudes  checks  the  flow  of  African  blood,  or  benumbs  African  limbs, 
the  slaveholder  knows  very  well  that  a  trifling  extra  expense  for  whips  will 
make  up  for  the  difference. 

But  suppose  a  doubt  could  be  reasonably  entertained  about  the  invasion 
of  the  new  territories  by  slavery.  Even  suppose  the  chances  to  preponderate 
against  it.  What  then  ?  Are  we  to  submit  a  question  of  human  liberty, 
over  vast  regions  and  for  an  indefinite  extent  of  time,  to  the  determination 
of  chance  ?  With  all  my  faculties  I  say  No !  Let  me  ask  any  man,  let 
me  respectfully  ask  Mr.  Webster  himself,  if  it  were  his  own  father  and 
mother,  and  brothers  and  sisters,  and  sons  and  daughters,  who  were  in  peril 
of  such  a  fate,  whether  he  would  abandon  them  to  chance, — even  to  a  favor 
able  chance.  Would  he  suffer  their  fate  to  be  determined  by  dice  or 
divination,  when  positive  prohibition  was  in  his  power  ?  And  by  what  rule 
of  Christian  morality,  or  even  of  enlightened  heathen  morality,  can  we  deal 
differently  with  the  kindred  of  others  from  what  we  would  with  our  own  ? 
He  is  not  a  Christian  whose  humanity  is  bounded  by  the  legal  degrees  of 
blood,  or  by  general  types  of  feature. 

But  Mr.  Webster  would  not  "  taunt  "  the  South.  Neither  would  I.  I 
would  not  taunt  any  honorable  man,  much  less  a  criminal.  Still,  when  the 
most  precious  interests  of  humanity  are  in  peril,  I  would  not  be  timid.  I 
would  not  stop  too  long  to  cull  lovers'  phrases.  Standing  under  the  eye  of 
God,  in  the  forum  of  the  world  and  before  the  august  tribunal  of  posterity, 
when  the  litigants  are  Freedom  and  Tyranny,  and  human  happiness  and  hu 
man  misery  the  prize  they  contest,  it  should  happen  to  the  sworn  advocate 
2 


18 

of  Liberty,  as  Quintilian  says  it  did  to  Isocrates,  "  not  to  speak  and  to  plead, 
but  to  thunder  and  to  lighten."  Mr.  Webster  would  not  taunt  the  South ; 
and  yet  I  say  the  South  were  never  so  insulted  before,  as  he  has  insulted 
them.  Common  scoffs,  jeers,  vilifications,  are  flattery  and  sycophancy, 
compared  with  the  indignities  he  heaped  upon  them.  Look  at  the  facts. 
The  South  waged  war  with  Mexico  from  one  and  only  one  motive  ;  for  one 
and  only  one  object, — the  extension  of  slavery.  They  refused  peace  unless 
it  surrendered  territory.  That  territory  must  be  south  of  the  abhorred  line 
of  36  deg.  80  min.  The  same  President  who  abandoned  the  broad  belt  of 
country  on  our  northern  frontier,  from  49  deg.  to  54  deg.  40  min.,  to  which 
we  had,  in  his  own  words,  "  an  unquestionable  title,"  would  allow  no  pro 
hibition  of  slavery  to  be  imposed  upon  the  territory  which  Mexico  ceded, 
though  she  would  bury  it  a  foot  deep  in  gold.  The  Proviso  had  been  re 
sisted  in  all  forms,  from  the  beginning.  Southern  Whigs  voted  against  the 
ratification  of  the  treaty,  foreseeing  the  struggle  that  was  to  follow.  Despe 
rate  efforts  were  made  to  smuggle  in  an  unrestricted  territorial  government, 
against  all  parliamentary  rule  and  all  constitutional  implication.  The  whole 
South,  as  one  man,  claimed  it  as  a  "  describable,  weighable,  estimable,  tangi 
ble  "  and  most  valuable  "right,"  to  carry  slaves  there.  Calhoun,  Berrien, 
Badger,  Mason,  Davis, — the  whole  Southern  phalanx,  Whig  and  Democrat, 
pleaded  for  it,  argued  for  it,  and  most  of  them  declared  themselves  ready  to 
fight  for  it ;  and  yet  Mr.  Webster  rises  in  his  place,  and  tells  them  they 
are  all  moon-struck,  hallucinated,  fatuous ;  because  "  an  ordinance  of  Nature 
and  the  will  of  God  "  had  settled  this  question  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world.  Mr.  Calhoun  said,  immediately  after  this  speech,  Give  us  free 
scope  and  time  enough,  and  we  will  take  care  of  the  rest. 

Mr.  Mason  said — 

"  We  have  heard  here  from  various  quarters  and  from  high  quarters,  and 
repeated  on  all  hands, — repeated  here  again  to-day  by  the  honorable  Senator 
from  Illinois,  (Mr.  Shields,)  that  there  is  a  law  of  nature  which  excludes 
the  Southern  people  from  every  portion  of  the  State  of  California.  I  know 
of  no  such  law  of  nature, — none  whatever ;  but  I  do  know  the  contrary, 
that  if  California  had  been  organized  with  a  territorial  form  of  govern 
ment  only,  and  for  which,  at  the  last  two  sessions  of  Congress,  she  has 
obtained  the  entire  Southern  vote,  the  people  of  the  Southern  States 
would  have  gone  there  freely,  and  have  taken  their  slaves  there  in  great 
numbers.  They  would  have  done  so  because  the  value  of  the  labor  of  that 
class  would  have  been  augmented  to  them  many  hundred  fold.  Why,  in  the 
debates  which  took  place  in  the  convention  in  California  which  formed  the 
constitution,  and  which  any  Senator  can  now  read  for  himself,  after  the  pro- 
vision  excluding  slavery  was  agreed  upon,  it  was  proposed  to  prohibit  the 
African  race  altogether,  free  as  well  as  bond.  A  debate  arose  upon  it ;  and 
the  ground  was  distinctly  taken,  as  shown  in  those  debates,  that  if  the 


19 

entire  African  race  was  not  excluded,  their  labor  would  be  found  so  valuable 
that  the  owners  of  slaves  would  bring  them  there,  even  though  slavery  were 
prohibited,  under  a  contract  to  manumit  them  in  two  or  three  years.  And  it 
required  very  little  reasoning,  on  the  part  of  those  opposed  to  this  class  of 
population,  to  show  that  the  productiveness  of  their  labor  would  be  such  as  to 
cause  that  result.  An  estimate  was  gone  into  with  reference  to  the  value  of 
the  labor  of  this  class  of  people,  showing  that  it  would  be  increased  to  such 
an  extent  in  the  mines  of  California,  that  they  could  not  be  kept  out.  It 
was  agreed  that  the  labor  of  a  slave  in  any  one  of  the  States  from  which 
they  would  be  taken,  was  not  worth  more  than  one  hundred  or  one  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  a  year,  and  that  in  California  it  would  be  worth  from  four 
to  six  thousand  dollars.  They  would  work  themselves  free  in  one  or  two 
years,  and  thus  the  country  would  be  filled  by  a  class  of  free  blacks,  and 
their  former  owners  have  an  excellent  bargain  in  taking  them  there." 

Yet  Mr.  Webster  stands  up  before  all  this  array,  and  says  :  "  Gentlemen, 
you  are  beside  yourselves.  You  have  eaten  hellebore.  You  would  look  more 
in  character  should  you  put  on  the  '  cap  and  bells.'  In  sober  sense,  in 
seeing  his  object  clearly  and  in  pursuing  it  directly,  Don  Quixote  was  Dr. 
Franklin,  compared  with  you.  The  dog  in  the  fable,  who  dropped  his  meat 
to  snap  at  its  shadow,  is  no  allegory  in  your  case.  I  see  two  classes  around 
me, — wise  men  and  fools  ;  you  do  not  belong  to  the  former.  The  Chancellor 
who  keeps  the  king's  idiots  should  have  custody  of  you."  Such  is  a  faith 
ful  abstract  of  what  Mr.  Webster  said  to  Southern  Senators,  and  through 
them  to  all  the  South 

Here  certainly  was  a  reflection  upon  the  understanding  and  intelligence 
of  the  South,  such  as  never  was  cast  upon  them  before.  But  the  balm 
went  with  the  sting.  They  bore  the  affront  to  their  judgments,  because  it 
was  so  grateful  to  their  politics  and  pockets.  I  think  it  no  injustice  to  those 
Senators  to  say,  that  they  would  have  nearly  torn  Mr.  Webster  in  pieces 
for  such  a  collective  insult,  if  it  had  not  promised  to  add  fifty  per  cent, 
to  their  individual  property,  and  to  secure  and  perpetuate  their  political 
ascendancy. 

To  help  our  conceptions  in  regard  to  Mr.  Webster's  course  on  this  sub- 
ject,  let  us  imagine  a  parallel  case, — or  rather,  an  approximate  one,  for  there 
can  be  no  parallel.  Suppose  a  contest  between  the  North  and  the  South,  on 
the  subject  of  the  Tariff,  to  have  been  raging  for  years.  The  sober  blood 
of  the  North  is  heated  to  the  fever-point.  The  newspapers  treat  of  nothing 
else.  Public  meetings  and  private  conversation  discuss  no  other  theme. 
Hundreds  of  delegates  wait  upon  Congress,  to  add,  if  it  be  but  a  feather's 
weight,  to  the  scale  which  holds  their  interests.  Petitions  flow  in,  in 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands.  It  is  announced  that  Mr. .  Calhoun  will 
pour  out  his  great  mind  on  the  subject.  Expectation  is  on  tiptoe.  All  eyes, 
from  all  sides  of  the  country,  are  turned  towards  Washington,  as  the  Muez- 


20 

zin's  to  Mecca.  The  Senate  chamber  is  packed,  and  the  illustrious  Sen 
ator  rises.  After  an  historic  sketch  of  existing  difficulties ;  after  reading 
from  the  speeches  which  he  made  in  1832,  and  in  1846,  he  proceeds  to  say 
that  he  withdraws  all  opposition  to  a  tariff, — to  any  tariff!  He  will  not  offend 
the  delicate  nerves  of  Northern  manufacturers  by  further  hostility.  Were 
a  bill  then  before  him,  he  would  not  oppose  it.  '•  Take  the  schedules,  " 
says  he,  scornfully,  to  Northern  Senators,  "  and  fill  up  the  blanks  from  A  to  Z 
with  what  per-centages  you  please.  For  ad  valorem  rates,  put  in  minimums 
and  maximums  at  your  pleasure.  I  will  '  taunt '  you  no  longer.  I  am  for 
peace  and  the  glorious  Union.  I  have  discovered  an  irrepealable  and  ir 
reversible  law  of  nature,  which  overrules  all  the  devices  of  men.  You  can 
not  make  one  yard  of  woollens  or  cottons  in  New  England.  There,  water  has 
no  gravity,  steam  has  no  force,  and  wheels  will  not  revolve.  In  Vermont 
and  New  York,  wool  will  not  grow  on  sheeps'  backs.  I  have  penetrated  the 
geology  of  Pennsylvania,  and  through  all  its  stratifications,  there  is  not 
a  thirnble-full  of  coal,  nor  an  ounce  of  iron  ore ;  and,  if  there  were,  com 
bustion  would  not  help  to  forge  it ;  for  oxygen  and  carbon  are  divorced. . 
As  Massachusetts  contributed  one-third  of  the  men  and  one-third  of  the 
money,  to  carry  on  the  Revolutionary  War,  I  am  willing  to  compensate  her 
for  her  lost  blood  and  treasure,  to  the  amount  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  dol 
lars,  with  which  she  may  fertilize  the  barrenness  of  her  genius,  and  indulge  her 
insane  love  for  churches  and  schools."  Had  the  great  Southern  Senator 
spoken  thus,  I  think  that  even  idolatrous,  man-worshipping  South  Carolina, 
— a  State  which  Mr.  Calhoun  has  ruled  and  moved  for  the  last  twenty-five 
years,  as  a  puppet-showman  plays  Punch  and  Judy, — would  have  sent  forth, 
through  all  her  organs,  a  voice  of  unanimous  dissent. 

As  much  as  Freedom  is  higher  than  Tariff,  so  much  stronger  than  their 
dissent  should  be  ours. 

Mr.  Webster's  averment  that  he  would  not  "re-affirm  an  ordinance  of 
Nature,  nor  reenact  the  will  of  God,"  [p.  44,]  has  been  commented  on 
more  pungently  than  I  am  able  or  willing  to  do.  It  has  been  said  that  all 
law  and  all  volition  must  be  in  harmony  with  the  will  of  the  Good  Spirit  or 
with  that  of  the  Evil  One ;  and,  if  we  will  not  reenact  the  will  of  the  former, 
then,  either  all  legislation  ceases,  or  we  must  register  the  decrees  of  the 
latter.  But  one  important  and  pertinent  consideration  belongs  to  this 
subject,  which  I  have  nowhere  seen  developed.  It  is  this  :  Endless  doubts 
and  contradictions  exist  among  men,  as  to  what  is  the  will  of  God ;  and  on 
no  subject  is  there  a  wider  diversity  of  opinion  than  on  this  very  subject  of 
slavery.  Whose  law  was  reenactcd  by  the  Ordinance  of  1787  ?  whose, 
when  the  African  slave-trade  was  prohibited  ?  whose,  when  it  was  declared 
piracy  ?  True,  it  is  useless  to  put  upon  our  statute-books  an  astronomical 
law,  regulating  sunrise,  or  high  tides ;  but  that  is  physical  and  beyond  the 
jurisdiction  of  man,  while  slavery  belongs  to  morals,  and  is  within  the  juris- 


21 

diction  of  man.  Cease  to  transcribe  upon  the  statute-book  what  our  wisest 
and  best  men  believe  to  be  the  will  of  God  in  regard  to  our  worldly  affairs, 
and  the  passions  which  we  think  appropriate  to  devils  will  soon  take  posses 
sion  of  society.  In  regard  to  slavery,  piracy,  and  so  forth,  there  are  multi 
tudes  of  men,  whose  fear  of  the  penal  sanctions  of  another  life  is  very  much 
aided  by  a  little  salutary  fine  and  imprisonment  in  this.  Look  at  that  noble 
array  of  principles  which  is  contained  in  the  Declaration  of  Rights  in  the 
Constitution  of  Massachusetts.  Is  it  not  a  most  grand  and  beautiful  ex 
position  of  "  the  will  of  God," — a  transcript  as  it  were,  from  the  Book  of 
Life.  So  of  the  amendments  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Yet 
our  fathers  thought  it  no  tampering  with  holy  things  to  enact  them  ;  and,  in 
times  of  struggle  and  peril,  they  have  been  to  many  a  tempted  man  as  an 
anchor  to  the  soul,  sure  and  steadfast. 

I  approach  Mr.  Webster's  treatment  of  the  Texas  question  with  no 
ordinary  anxiety.  Having  been  accustomed  from  my  very  boyhood  to  re 
gard  him  as  the  almost  infallible  expounder  of  constitutional  law,  it  is  im 
possible  to  describe  the  struggle,  the  revulsion  of  mind,  with  which  I  have 
passed  from  an  instructed  and  joyous  acquiescence  in  his  former  opinions  to 
unhesitating  dissent  from  his  present  ones. 

I  must  premise  that  I  cannot  see  any  necessary  or  beneficial  connection 
between  the  subject  of  new  Texan  States  and  the  admission  of  California 
and  the  government  of  the  territories.  The  former  refers  to  some  indefinite 
future,  when,  from  its  fruitful  womb  of  slavery,  Texas  shall  seek  to  cast  forth 
an  untimely  birth.  In  this  excited  state  of  the  country,— at  this  critical 
juncture  of  our  affairs,  when  there  is  sober  talk  of  massacring  a  majority  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  on  their  own  floor,  and  a  Senator,  instead  of 
threatening  to  hang  a  brother  Senator  on  the  highest  tree,  provided  he  could 
catch  him  in  his  own  State,  now  draws  a  revolver  of  six  barrels  on  another 
brother  Senator,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  in  mid  session  ;  — at  such  a  time, 
I  say,  when,  however  few  Abels  there  may  be  at  work  in  the  political  field, 
there  are  Cains  more  than  enough,  would  it  not  hav.e  been  well  to  have 
said,  "  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof"  ? 

As  the  basis  of  his  argument,  Mr.  Webster  quotes  the  following  resolu 
tion  : 

"  New  States  of  convenient  size,  not  exceeding  four  in  number,  in  addition  to 
said  State  of  Texas,  and  having  sufficient  population,  may  hereafter  by  the  con 
sent  of  the  said  State,  be  formed  out  of  the  territory  thereof,  which  shall  be  en 
titled  to  admission  under  the  provisions  of  the  Federal  constitution.  And  such 
States  as  maybe  formed  out  of  that  portion  of  said  territory  lying  south  of  36  dcg. 
30  min.  north  latitude,  commonly  known  as  the  Missouri  compromise  line,  shall  be 
admitted  into  the  Union,  with  or  without  slavery,  as  the  people  of  each  State  ask 
ing  admission  may  desire  ;  and  in  such  State  or  States  as  shall  be  formed  out  of 
said  territory  north  of  said  Missouri  compromise  line,  slavery  or  involuntary 
servitude,  (except  for  crime,)  shall  be  prohibited." 


22 

Note  here,  first,  that  only  "four*  States  are  to  be  admitted  in  "  addi 
tion  to  said  State  of  Texas ;  "  and  second,  that  "  such  State  or  States  "  (in 
the  plural)  as  shall  be  formed  from  territory  north  of  36  deg.,  30  min., 
shall  be  free.  If  two,  or  only  one  free  State  is  to  exist  on  the  north  side  of 
the  line,  then  how  many  will  be  left  for  the  south  side  ?  I  should  expose 
myself  to  ridicule  were  I  to  set  it  down  arithmetically,  four  minus  one,  equal 
to  three.  Yet  Mr.  Webster  says  "  the  guaranty  is,  that  new  States  shall  be 
made  out  of  it,  [the  Texan  territory,]  and  that  such  States  as  are  formed  out 
of  that  portion  of  Texas  lying  South  of  36  deg.,  30  min.,  may  come  in  as 
slave  States,  to  the  number  of  FOUR,  in  addition  to  the  State  then  in  exist 
ence,  and  admitted  at  that  time  by  these  resolutions  ;  "  p.  29. 

Here  Mr.  Webster  gives  outright  to  the  South  and  to  slavery,  one  more 
State  than  was  contracted  for, — assuming  the  contract  to  be  valid.  He 
makes  a  donation,  a  gratuity,  of  an  entire  slave  State,  larger  than  many  a 
European  principality.  He  transfers  a  whole  State,  with  all  its  beating 
hearts,  present  and  future,  with  all  its  infinite  susceptibilities  of  weal  or  woe, 
from  the  side  of  freedom  to  that  of  slavery,  in  the  leger-book  of  humanity. 
What  a  bridal  gift  for  the  harlot  of  bondage  ! 

Was  not  the  bargain  hard  enough,  according  to  its  terms  ?  Must  we  fulfil 
it,  and  go  beyond  it  ?  Is  a  slave  State,  which  dooms  our  brethren  of  the 
human  race,  perhaps  interminably,  to  the  vassal's  fate,  so  insignificant  a 
trifle,  that  it  may  be  flung  in,  as  small  change  on  the  settlement  of  an  ac 
count  ?  Has  the  South  been  so  generous  a  copartner,  as  to  deserve  this 
distinguished  token  of  our  gratitude  ? 

Why,  by  parity  of  reasoning,  could  he  not  have  claimed  all  the  four  States, 
"  in  addition  to  said  State  of  Texas,"  as  free  States?  The  resolutions 
divide  the  territory  into  two  parts,  one  north  and  one  south  of  the  line  of 
36°  30'.  Could  not  Mr  Webster  have  claimed  the  four  States  for  Freedom 
with  as  sound  logic,  and  with  far  better  humanity  than  he  surrendered  them 
to  Slavery?  When  Texas  and  the  South  have  got  their  slave  States  "  to 
the  number  of  four"  into  the  Union,  whence  are  we  to  obtain  our  one  or 
more  free  States  ?  The  contract  will  have  been  executed,  and  the  consent  of 
Texas  for  another  State  will  be  withheld. 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  Mr.  Webster  affirms  the  right  of  slavery  to  four 
more  States,  in  the  following  words  :  "  I  know  no  form  of  legislation  which 
can  strengthen  this.  I  know  no  mode  of  recognition  that  can  add  a  tittle  of 
weight  to  it."  Catching  the  tone  of  his  asseveration,  I  respond  that  I 
know  no  form  of  statement,  nor  process  of  reasoning,  which  can  make  it 
more  clear  that  this  is  an  absolute  and  wanton  surrender  of  the  rights  of  the 
North  and  the  rights  of  humanity. 

But  I  hold  the  Texan  resolutions  to  have  been  utterly  void  ;  and  proceed 
to  give  the  reasons  for  my  opinion. 

I  begin  by  quoting  Mr.  Webster  against  himself.     In  an  Address  to  the 


people  of  the  United  States,  from  the  Massachusetts  Anti-Texas  State  Con 
vention,  January  29th,  1845,  the  subjoined  passage,  which  is  understood, 
or  rather,  I  may  say,  is  now  well  known,  to  have  been  dictated  by  Mr.  Web 
ster  himself,  may  be  found  : 

"  But  we  desire  not  to  be  misunderstood.  According  to  our  convictions, 
there  is  no  power  in  any  branch  of  the  government,  or  all  its  branches,  to 
annex  foreign  territory  to  this  Union.  We  have  made  the  foregoing  remarks 
only  to  show,  that,  if  any  fair  construction  could  show  such  a  power  to  exist 
any  where,  or  to  be  exercised  in  any  form,  yet  the  manner  of  its  exercise 
now  proposed  is  destitute  of  all  decent  semblance  of  constitutional  pro 
priety." 

Thus  cancelling  the  authority  of  Mr.  Webster  in  1850  by  the  authority 
of  Mr.  Webster  in  1845, 1  proceed  with  the  argument. 

Though  the  annexation  of  Texas  was  in  pursuance  of  a  void  stipulation, 
yet  it  is  a  clear  principle  of  law  that  when  a  contract  void  between  the  par 
ties,  has  been  executed  by  them,  it  cannot  then  be  annulled.  If  executed, 
it  becomes  valid,  not  by  virtue  of  the  contract,  but  by  virtue  of  the  execu 
tion.  I  bow  to  this  legal  principle,  and  would  fulfil  it.  But  any  indepen 
dent  stipulation  which  remains  unexecuted,  remains  invalid.  Such  is  that  part 
of  the  annexation  resolutions  which  provides  for  the  admission  of  a  brood  of 
Texan  States.  The  resolutions  themselves  say  in  express  terms,  that  the  new 
States  are  to  be  admitted  "  under  the  provisions  of  the  Federal  Constitution ;" 
and  the  Constitution  says,  "  New  States  may  be  admitted  by  the  Congress  into 
this  Union."  By  what  Congress  ?  Plainly,  by  the  Congress  in  session  at  the 
time  when  application  for  admission  is  made  ;  and  by  no  other.  The  fourth 
Texan  State  may  not  be  ready  for  admission  for  fifty  years  to  come  ;  and 
could  the  Congress  of  1845  bind  the  Congress  of  1900  ?  The  Congress  of 
1900  and  all  future  Congresses,  will  derive  their  authority  from  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States,  and  not  from  any  preceding  Congress.  Put  the  case 
in  a  negative  form.  Could  the  Congress  of  1845  bind  all  future  Congresses 
not  to  admit  new  States,  and  thus,  pro  tanto,  annul  the  Constitution? 
Positive  or  negative,  the  result  is  the  same.  No  previous  Congress,  on  such 
a  subject,  can  enlarge  or  limit  the  power  of  a  subsequent  one.  Whenever, 
therefore,  the  question  of  a  new  Texan  State  comes  up  for  consideration, 
the  Congress  then  in  being  must  decide  it  on  its  own  merits,  untrammeled 
by  anything  their  predecessors  have  done  ;  and  especially  free  from  a  law 
which,  while  similar  in  spirit,  is  a  thousand  times  more  odious  in  principle 
than  statutes  of  mortmain. 

Admitting  that  a  future  Congress,  on  such  a  subject,  might  be  bound  by 
a  treaty,  I  answer  that  here  was  no  treaty  ;  while  the  fact  that  a  treaty  clause 
was  introduced  into  the  resolutions,  in  the  Senate,  for  the  sake  of  obtaining 
certain  votes  that  would  never  otherwise  have  been  given  in  their  favor,  and 
under  an  express  pledge  from  the  Executive  that  the  method  by  treaty  should 


24 

be  adopted,  which  pledge  was  forthwith  iniquitously  broken,  leaves  no  ele 
ment  of  baseness  and  fraud  by  wh  h  this  proceeding  was  not  contaminated. 
In  the  name  of  the  Constitution,  then,  and  of  justice,  let  every  honest  man 
denounce  those  resolutions  as  void,  alike  in  the  forum  of  law  and  in  the  fo  - 
rum  of  conscience ;  and,  admitting  Texas  herself  to  be  in  the  Union,  yet, 
when  application  is  made  for  any  new  State  from  that  territory,  let  the  ques 
tion  be  decided  upon  the  merits  it  may  then  possess. 

And  was  not  Mr.  Webster  of  the  same  opinion,  when,  in  Faneuil  Hall, 
in  November,  1845,  after  the  Resolutions  of  Annexation  had  passed,  he 
made  the  following  emphatic,  but  unprophetic,  declaration  : 

"  It  is  thought,  it  is  an  idea  I  do  not  say  how  well  founded,  that  there 
may  yet  be  a  hope  for  resistance  to  the  consummation  of  the  act  of  annexa 
tion.  I  can  only  say  for  one  that  if  it  should  fall  to  my  lot  to  have  a  vote 
on  such  a  question,  AND  I  VOTE  FOR  THE  ADMISSION  INTO  THIS  UNION  OP 
ANY  STATE  WITH  A  CONSTITUTION  WHICH  PROHIBITS  EVEN  THE  LEGISLA 
TURE  FROM  EVER  SETTING  THE  BONDMEN  FREE,  I  SHALL  NEVER 

SHOW  MY  HEAD  AGAIN,  DEPEND  UPON  IT,  IN  FANEUIL 
HALL." 

There  is  another  objection  to  any  future  claim  of  Texas  to  be  divided 
into  States,  which  grows  out  of  her  own  neglect  to  fulfil  the  terms  and  spirit 
of  the  agreement.  In  the  "territory  north  of  the  Missouri  compromise 
line,  slavery  or  involuntary  servitude,  (except  for  crime,)  shall  be  prohibit 
ed."  So  reads  the  bond.  But  if  Texas  suffers  slavery  to  be  extended  over 
that  part  of  her  territory,  then,  when  it  becomes  populous  enough  for  ad 
mission,  and  is  overspread  with  slavery,  a  new  State  may  present  a  free  con 
stitution,  be  admitted  by  Congress,  and  before  the  slaves  have  time  to  escape, 
or  to  carry  the  question  of  freedom  before  the  judicial  tribunals,  Presto  !  this 
free  constitution  will  be  changed  into  a  slave  constitution,  under  the  alleged 
right  of  a  State  to  decide  upon  its  own  domestic  institutions,  and  thus  the 
word  of  promise  which  was  kept  to  the  ear,  will  be  broken  to  the  hope.  If 
Texas  meant  to  abide  by  the  resolutions  of  annexation,  and  to  claim  anything 
under  them,  it  was  her  clear  and  imperative  duty  forthwith  to  pass  a  law, 
securing  freedom  to  every  inhabitant  north  of  the  compromise  line.  In  this 
way  only  can  the  resolutions  be  executed  in  their  true  spirit.  That  territory 
is  now  in  the  condition  of  an  egg.  It  is  undergoing  incubation.  From  it  a 
State  is  hereafter  to  be  hatched  ;  but  before  promising  to  accept  the  chick,  it 
would  be  agreeable  to  know  whether  a  viper  had  impregnated  the  egg. 

But  there  is  a  still  further  objection,  of  whose  soundness  I  have  no  doubt ; 
but  should  I  be  in  error  in  regard  to  it,  the  mistake  will  not  invalidate  any 
other  argument.  The  parties  to  that  agreement  stipulated  on  the  ground  of 
mutualitity,  whout  which  all  contracts  are  void  .Some  States  were  to  be 
admitted  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  slavery,  and  some  of  freedom.  A  line  of 
demarcation  was  drawn.  Now,  on  investigation,  I  believe  it  will  most  con- 


clusively  appear  that  there  is  not  an  inch  of  Texan  territory  north  of  the 
stipulated  line.  It  all  belongs  to  New  Mexico,  as  much  as  Nantucket  or 
Berkshire  belongs  to  Massachusetts.  It  was  a  mistake  on  the  part  of  the 
contracting  parties  ;  if,  on  the  part  of  Texas,  it  was  not  something  worse  than, 
a  mistake.  The  mutuality,  then,  fails.  The  contract  is  nudum  pactum. 
Texas  can  give  nothing  for  what  she  was  to  receive  ;  and  is,  therefore,  enti 
tled  to  receive  nothing  but  what  she  has  got. 

In  regard  to  "  the  business  of  seeing  that  fugitives  are  delivered  up," 
Mr.  Webster  says  :  "  My  friend  at  the  head  of  the  Judiciary  Committee, 
[Mr.  Butler  of  South  Carolina,]  has  a  bill  on  the  subject  now  before  the 
Senate,  with  some  admendments  to  it,  which  I  propose  to  support,  with  all 
its  provisions,  to  the  fullest  extent." 

Here  is  Mr.  Butler's  bill,  with  Mr.  Mason's  amendments : 

A  BILL          Bancroft  Library 

To  provide  for  the  more  effectual  execution  of  the  third  clause  of  the  second  section  of 
the  fourth  article  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  when  a  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  any 
State  or  Territory  of  the  United  States,  under  the  laws  of  such  State  or  Terri 
tory,  shall  escape  into  any  other  of  the  said  States  or  Territories,  the  person  to 
whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be  due,  his  or  her  agent,  or  attorney,  is  hereby 
empowered  to  seize  or  arrest  such  fugitive  from  service  or  labor,  and  take  him 
or  her  before  any  judge  of  the  circuit  or  district  courts  of  the  United  States,  or 
before  any  commissioner,  or  clerk  of  such  courts,  or  marshal  thereof,  or  any 
postmaster  of  the  United  States,  or  collector  of  the  customs  of  the  United  States, 
residing  or  being  within  such  State  wherein  such  seizure  or  arrest  shall  be  made, 
and  upon  proof  to  the  satisfaction  of  said  judge,  commissioner,  clerk,  marshal, 
postmaster,  or  collector,  as  the  case  may  be,  either  by  oral  testimony  or  affidavit 
taken  before  and  certified  by  any  person  authorized  to  administer  an  oath  under 
the  laws  of  the  United  States,  or  of  any  State,  that  the  person  so  seized  or  arrested 
under  the  laws  of  the  State  or  Territory  from  which  he  or  she  fled,  owe  service 
or  labor  to  the  person  claiming  him  or  her,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  such  judge, 
commissioner,  clerk,  marshal,  postmaster,  or  collector,  to  give  a  certificate  thereof 
to  such  claimant,  his  or  her  agent,  or  attorney,  which  certificate  shall  be  a  sufficient 
warrant  for  taking  and  removing  such  fugitive  from  service  or  labor,  to  the  State 
or  Territory  from  which  he  or  she  fled. 

Sec.  2.  And 'be  it  further  enacted,  That  when  a  person  held  to  service  or  labor, 
as  mentioned  in  the  first  section  of  this  act,  shall  escape  from  such  service  or 
labor,  as  therein  mentioned,  the  person  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may  be 
due,  his  or  her  agent,  or  attorney,  may  apply  to  any  one  of  the  officers  of  the 
United  States  named  in  said  section,  other  than  a  marshal  of  the  United  States, 
for  a  warrant  to  seize  and  arrest  such  fugitive,  and  upon  affidavit  being  made 
before  such  officer,  (each  of  whom  for  the  purposes  of  this  act  is  hereby  authorized 
to  administer  an  oath  or  affirmation)  by  such  claimant,  his  or  her  agent,  that  such 
person  does,  under  the  laws  of  the  State  or  Territory  from  which  he  or  she  fled, 
owe  service  or  labor  to  such  claimant,  it  shall  be,  and  is  hereby  made,  the  duty 
of  such  officer,  to  and  before  whom  such  application  and  affidavit  is  made,  to 


26 


issue  his  warrant  to  any  marshal  of  any  of  the  courts  of  the  United  States  to 
seize  and  arrest  such  alleged  fugitive  and  to  bring  him  or  her  forthwith,  or  on  a 
day  to  be  named  in  such  warrant,  before  the  officer  issuing  such  warrant,  or 
either  of  the  officers  mentioned  in  said  first  section,  except  the  marshal  to  whom 
the  said  warrant  is  directed,  which  said  warrant  or  authority  the  said  marshal  is 
hereby  authorized  and  directed  in  all  things  to  obey. 

Sec.  3.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  upon  affidavit  made  as  aforesaid  by  the 
claimant  of  such  fugitive,  his  agent  or  attorney,  after  such  certificate  has  been 
issued,  that  he  has  reason  to  apprehend  that  such  fugitive  will  be  rescued  by 
force  from  his  or  their  possession,  before  he  can  be  taken  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  State  in  which  the  arrest  is  made,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  officer  making 
the  arrest  to  retain  such  fugitive  in  his  custody,  and  to  remove  him  to  the 
State  whence  he  fled,  and  there  to  deliver  him  to  said  claimant,  his  agent  or 
attorney.  And  to  this  end,  the  officer  aforesaid  is  hereby  authorized  and  required 
to  employ  so  many  persons  as  he  may  deem  necessary  to  overcome  such  force, 
and  to  retain  them  in  his  service  so  long  as  circumstances  may  require.  The  said 
officer  and  his  assistants,  while  so  employed,  to  receive  the  same  compensation, 
and  to  be  allowed  the  same  expenses  as  are  now  allowed  by  law  for  transporta 
tion  of  criminals,  to  be  certified  by  the  judge  of  the  district  within  which  the 
arrest  is  made,  and  paid  out  of  the  treasury  of  the  United  States :  Provided, 
that  before  such  charges  are  incurred,  the  claimant,  his  agent,  or  attorney,  shall 
secure  to  said  officer  payment  of  the  same,  and  in  case  no  actual  force  be  opposed, 
then  they  shall  be  paid  by  such  claimant,  his  agent,  or  attorney. 

Sec.  4.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  When  a  warrant  shall  have  been  issued  by 
any  of  the  officers  under  the  second  section  of  this  act,  and  there  shall  be  no 
marshal  or  deputy  marshal  within  ten  miles  of  the  place  where  such  warrant  is 
issued,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  officer  issuing  the  same,  at  the  request  of  the 
claimant,  his  agent,  or  attorney,  to  appoint  some  fit  and  discreet  person,  who 
shall  be  willing  to  act  as  marshal,  for  the  purpose  of  executing  said  warrant,  and 
such  person  so  appointed  shall,  to  the  extent  of  executing  said  warrant  and 
detaining  and  transporting  the  fugitive  named  therein,  have  all  the  power  and 
authority,  and  be,  with  his  assistants,  entitled  to  the  same  compensation  and 
expenses  provided  in  this  act  in  cases  where  the  services  are  performed  by  the 
marshals  of  the  courts. 

Sec.  5.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  any  person  who  shall  knowingly  and 
willingly  obstruct  or  hinder  such  claimant,  his  agent  or  attorney,  or  any  person 
or  persons  assisting  him,  her,  or  them,  in  so  serving  or  arresting  such  fugitive 
from  service  or  labor,  or  shall  rescue  such  fugitive  from  such  claimant,  his  agent, 
or  attorney,  when  so  arrested,  pursuant  to  the  authority  herein  given  or  declared, 
or  shall  aid,  abet,  or  assist  such  person  so  owing  service  or  labor  to  escape  from 
such  claimant,  his  agent  or  attorney,  or  shall  harbor  or  conceal  such  person,  after 
notice  that  he  or  she  was  a  fugitive  from  labor,  as  aforesaid,  shall,  for  either  of 
the  said  offences,  forfeit  and  pay  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars,  which  penalty 
may  be  recovered  by  and  for  the  benefit  of  such  claimant,  by  action  of  debt  in 
any  court  proper  to  try  the  same,  saving,  moreover,  to  the  person  claiming  such 
labor  or  service,  his  right  of  action  for,  on  account  of,  the  said  injuries,  or  either 
of  them. 

Sec.  6.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  when  said  person  is  seized  or  arrested 
under,  and  by  virtue  of  the  said  warrant,  by  such  marshal,  and  is  brought  before 
either  of  the  officers  aforesaid,  other  than  said  marshal,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of 


such  officer  to  proceed  in  the  case  of  such  person,  in  the  same  way  as  he  is 
directed  and  authorized  to  do  when  such  person  is  seized  and  arrested  by  the 
person  claiming  him,  or  by  his  or  her  agent,  or  attorney,  and  is  brought  before 
such  officer  under  the  provisions  of  the  first  section  of  this  act. 
AMENDMENTS  intended  to  be  proposed  by  Mr.  Mason  to  the  bill  (S.  23),  to  provide  for 

the  more  effectual  execution  of  the  third  clause  of  the  second  section  of  the  fourth 

article  of  the   Constitution  of  the  United  States  : 

At  the  end  of  section  5,  add : 

And  any  person  or  persons  offending  against  the  provisions  of  this  section,  to 
be  moreover  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  or  in  obstructing  the  due  execu 
tion  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  upon  conviction  thereof  shall  be  fined 
in  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars,  one  half  whereof  shall  be  to  the  use  of  the 
informer ;  and  shall  also  be  imprisoned  for  the  term  of  twelve  months. 

At  the  end  of  section  6,  add : 

And  in  no  trial  or  hearing  under  this  act  shall  the  testimony  of  such  fugitive 
be  admitted  in  evidence. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  first  section  of  the  bill,  after  constituting  the 
judges  of  the  courts,  the  seventeen  thousand  postmasters,  the  collectors, 
&c.,  as  tribunals,  without  appeal,  for  the  delivery  of  any  body,  who  is 
sworn  by  anybody,  anywhere,  to  be  a  fugitive  slave,  refers  to  the  before- 
mentioned  officers  in  the  words  "  residing  or  being  within  such  State  where 
such  seizure  or  arrest  is  made."  That  is,  the  judge,  postmaster,  collector, 
&c.,  need  not  be  an  inhabitant  of  the  State,  or  hold  his  office  in  the  State, 
where  the  seizure  is  made  ;  but  it  is  sufficient  if  he  is  such  officer  any  where 
within  the  United  States.  Mr.  Butler  or  Mr.  Mason,  therefore,  may  send 
the  postmaster  of  his  own  city  or  village,  into  Massachusetts,  with  an  agent 
or  attorney,  who  brings  his  affidavit  from  South  Carolina  or  Virginia,  in  his 
pocket ;  the  agent  or  attorney  may  arrest  anybody,  at  any  time,  carry  him 
before  his  accomplice,  go  through  with  the  judicial  forms,  and  hurry  him  to 
the  South  ; — the  officer,  after  his  judicial  functions  are  discharged,  turning 
bailiff,  protecting  the  prey  and  speeding  the  flight ! 

Still  further ;  this  bill  derides  the  trial  by  jury,  secured  by  the  Constitu 
tion.  A  man  may  not  lose  a  horse  without  a  right  to  this  trial ;  but  he  may 
his  freedom.  Mr.  Webster  spoke  for  the  South  and  for  slavery ;  not  for 
the  North  and  for  freedom,  when  he  abandoned  this  right.  Such  an  abandon 
ment,  it  would  be  impossible  to  believe  of  one  who  has  earned  such  fame  as 
Defender  of  the  Constitution ;  it  would  be  more  reasonable  to  suppose  the 
existence  of  some  strange  misapprehension,  had  not  Mr.  Webster,'  with  that 
precision  and  strength  which  are  so  peculiarly  his  own,  declared  his  deter 
mination  to  support  this  hideous  bill,  "  with  all  its  provisions  to  the  fullest 
extent,"  when,  at  the  same  moment,  another  bill,  of  which  he  took  no  notice, 
was  pending  before  the  Senate,  introduced  by  Mr.  Seward  of  New  York, 
securing  the  invaluable  privilege  of  a  jury  trial. 

I  disdain  to  avail  myself,  in  a  sober  argument,  of  the  popular  sensitive 
ness  on  this  subject ;  and  I  acknowledge  my  obligations  to  the  Constitution 


28 

while  it  is  suffered  to  last.  But  still  I  say,  that  the  man  who  can  read  this 
bill  without  having  his  blood  boil  in  his  veins,  has  a  power  of  refrigeration 
that  would  cool  the  tropics. 

I  cannot  doubt  that  Mr.  Webster  will  yet  see  the  necessity  of  reconsider 
ing  his  position,  on  this  whole  question. 

Mr.  Webster  says  :  "  It  is  my  firm  opinion,  this  day,  that  within  the  last 
twenty  years  as  much  money  has  been  collected  and  paid  to  the  abolition 
societies,  abolition  presses,  and  abolition  lecturers,  as  would  purchase  the 
freedom  of  every  slave,  man,  woman  and  child,  in  the  State  of  Maryland, 
and  send  them  all  to  Liberia." 

The  total  number  of  slaves  in  Maryland,  according  to  the  last  census, 
amounted  to  89,405.  At  $250  apiece, — which  is  but  about  half  the  value 
commonly  assigned  to  Southern  slaves  by  Southern  men, — this  would  be 
$22,373,750.  Allowing  $30  each  for  transportation  to  Liberia,  without 
any  provision  for  them  after  their  arrival  there,  the  whole  sum  would  be 
$25,058,600, — in  round  numbers  twenty-five  millions  of  dollars  ! — more 
than  a  million  and  a  quarter  in  each  year,  and  about  thirty-five  hundred 
dollars  per  day.  I  had  not  supposed  the  abolitionists  had  such  resources  at 
their  command. 

I  have  dwelt  thus  long  upon  Mr.  Webster's  speech,  because  in  connection 
with  his  two  votes  in  favor  of  Mr.  Foote's  committee  of  compromise,  which 
votes,  had  they  been  the  other  way,  would  have  utterly  defeated  the  com 
mittee,  it  is  considered  to  have  done  more  to  jeopard  the  great  cause  of  free 
dom  in  the  territories,  than  any  other  event  of  this  disastrous  session.  I 
have  spoken  of  Mr.  Webster  by  name,  and  I  trust,  in  none  but  respectful 
terms.  I  might  have  introduced  other  names,  or  examined  his  positions, 
without  mentioning  him.  I  have  taken  what  seemed  to  me  the  more  manly 
course ;  and  if'  these  views  should  ever  by  chance  fall  under  his  eye,  I 
believe  he  has  magnanimity  enough  to  respect  me  more  for  the  frankness  I 
have  used.  If  I  am  wrong,  I  will  not  add  to  an  error  of  judgment,  the 
meanness  of  a  clandestine  attack.  If  I  am  right,  no  one  can  complain  ;  for 
we  must  all  bow  before  the  majesty  of  Truth. 

I  have  now  noticed  the  principal  events  which  have  taken  place  in  Con 
gress,  and  which  have  led  to  what  military  men  would  call  the  "  demoraliza 
tion  ' '  of  many  of  the  rank  and  file  of  its  members.  Some  recent  movements 
have  brought  vividly  to  mind  certain  historical  recollections  in  regard  to  the 
African  slave  trade,  now  execrated  by  all  civilized  nations.  When  the 
immortal  Wilberforce  exposed  to  public  gaze  the  secrets  of  that  horrid  traffic, 
his  biographer  says,  "  The  first  burst  of  generous  indignation  promised 
nothing  less  than  the  instant  abolition  of  the  trade,  but  mercantile  jealousy 
had  taken  the  alarm,  and  the  defenders  of  the  West  India  system  found 
themselves  strengthened  by  the  independent  alliance  of  commercial  men ." 
—Life  of  Wilberforce,  vol.  I,  p.  291. 


Again ;  opposition  to  Wilberforce's  motion  "  arose  amongst  the  Guinea 
merchants" — "reinforced,  however,  before  long  by  the  great  body  of 
West  India  planters." — Ibid. 

The  Corporation  of  Liverpool  spent,  first  and  last,  upwards  of  £10,000  in 
defence  of  a  traffic  which  even  the  gravity  and  calmness  of  judicial  decisions 
have  since  pronounced  "  infernal." 

"  Besides  printing  works  in  defence  of  the  slave  trade  and  remunerating 
their  authors ;  paying  the  expenses  of  delegates  to  attend  in  London  and 
watch  Mr.  Wilberforce's  proceedings,  they  pensioned  the  widows  of  Norris 
and  Gree,  and  voted  plate  to  Mr.  Penny,  for  their  exertions  in  this  cause." 
—Ibid.  p.  345. 

It  is  said  that  the  Corporation  of  Liverpool,  at  this  time,  "believed  firmly 
that  the  very  existence  of  the  city  depended  upon  the  continuance  of  the 
traffic."  Look  at  Liverpool  now,  and  reflect  what  greater  rewards,  even 
of  a  temporal  nature,  God  reserves  for  men  that  abjure  dishonesty  and 
crime. 

All  collateral  motives  were  brought  to  bear  upon  the  subject,  just  as  they 
are  at  the  present  time.  The  Guinea  trade  was  defended  "  as  a  nursery  for 
seamen."— Ib.,  p.  293. 

Even  as  late  as  1816,  the  same  class  of  men,  in  the  same  country,  opposed 
the  abolition  of  "  white  slavery  "  in  Algiers,  from  the  same  base  motives  of 
interest.  It  was  thought  that  the  danger  of  navigating  the  Mediterranean, 
caused  by  the  Barbary  Corsairs,  was  advantageous  to  British  commerce ; 
because  it  might  deter  the  merchant  ships  of  other  nations  from  visiting  it. 
After  Lord  Exmouth  had  compelled  the  Algerines  to  liberate  their  Euro 
pean  slaves,  he  proceeded  against  Tunis  and  Tripoli.  In  giving  an  account 
of  what  he  had  done,  he  defends  his  conduct  "  upon  general  principles," 
but  adds,  "  as  applying  to  our  own  country,  [Great  Britain,]  it  may  not  be 
borne  out,  the  old  mercantile  interest  being  against  it." — Osier's  Life  of 
Exmouth,  p.  303. 

So  after  Admiral  Blake,  in  the  time  of  Cromwell,  had  attacked  Tunis,  he 
says,  in  his  despatch  to  Secretary  Thurloe,  "  And  now  seeing  it  hath 
pleased  God  soe  signally  to  justify  us  herein,  I  hope  his  highnes  will  not 
be  offended  at  it,  nor  any  who  regard  duly  the  honor  of  the  nation,  although 
I  expect  to  have  the  clamors  of  INTERESTED  MEN." — (Thurloe's  State  Pa 
pers,  vol.  II,  p.  390.)  And  is  Commerce,  the  daughter  of  Freedom,  thus 
forever  to  lift  her  parricidal  hand  against  the  parent  that  bore  her  ?  Are 
rich  men  forever  to  use  their  "  thirty  pieces  of  silver,"  or  their  "  ten  thousand 
pounds  sterling,"  or  their  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars,  to  reward  the 
Judases  for  betraying  their  Saviour  ?  Viewed  by  the  light  of  our  increased 
knowledge,  and  by  our  more  elevated  standard  of  duty,  the  extension  of 
slavery  into  California  or  New  Mexico,  at  the  present  time,  or  even  the  suf- 
france  of  it  there,  is  a  vastly  greater  crime  than  was  the  African  slave  trade 


80 

itself,  in  the  last  century  ;  and  I  would  rather  meet  the  doom  of  posterity 
or  of  heaven,  for  being  engaged  in  the  traffic  then,  than  for  being  accessary 
to  its  propagation  now. 

Let  those  who  aid,  abet,  or  connive  at  slavery  extension  now,  as  they 
read  the  damning  sentence  which  history  has  awarded  against  the  actors, 
abettors  and  connivers  of  the  African  trade,  but  change  the  names,  and  they 
will  be  reading  of  themselves.  Should  our  new  territories  be  hereafter  filled 
with  groaning  bondmen,  should  they  become  an  American  Egypt,  tyrannized 
over  by  ten  thousand  Pharaohs,  it  will  be  no  defence  for  those  who  permit 
ted  it,  to  say,  "  We  hoped,  we  supposed,  we  trusted,  that  slavery  could  not 
go  there  ;  "  Nemesis,  as  she  plies  her  scorpion  lash,  will  reply,  "  You  might 
have  made  it  certain." 

On  this  great  question  of  freedom  or  slavery,  I  have  observed  with  grief, 
nay,  with  anguish,  that  we,  at  the  North,  break  up  into  hostile  parties,  hurl 
criminations  and  recriminations  to  and  fro,  and  expend  that  strength  for  the 
ruin  of  each  other,  which  should  be  directed  against  the  enemies  of  Liberty ; 
while,  at  the  South,  whenever  slavery  is  in  jeopardy,  all  party  lines  are  ob 
literated,  dissensions  are  healed,  enemies  become  friends,  and  all  are  found 
in  a  solid  column,  with  an  unbroken  front.  Are  the  children  of  darkness 
to  be  forever  so  much  wiser  than  the  children  of  light  ?  In  the  recent 
choice  of  delegates  for  the  Nashville  Convention,  I  have  not  seen  a  single 
instance  where  Whig  and  Democrat  have  not  been  chosen  as  though  they 
were  Siamese  twins,  and  must  go  together.  But  here  it  often  happens,  that 
as  soon  as  one  party  is  known  to  be  in  favor  of  one  man,  this  act  alone  is 
deemed  a  sufficient  reason  why  another  party  should  oppose  him.  Why  can 
we  not  combine  for  the  sacred  cause  of  freedom,  as  they  combine  for 
slavery  ?  No  thought  or  desire  is  further  from  my  mind  than  that  of  inter 
fering  with  any  man's  right  of  suffrage  ;  but  if  (which  is  by  no  means  im 
possible,  nor  perhaps  improbable,)  the  fate  of  New  Mexico  should  be  de 
cided  by  one  vote,  and  my  vote  should  have  been  the  cause  of  a  vacancy  in 
any  Congressional  District  that  might  have  sent  a  friend  to  freedom,  I 
should  say,  with  Cain,  "  My  punishment  is  greater  than  I  can  bear." 

On  the  subject  of  the  present  alienation  and  discord  between  the  North 
and  the  South,  I  wish  to  say  that  I  have  as  strong  a  desire  for  reconciliation 
and  amity  as  any  one  can  have.  There  is  no  pecuniary  sacrifice  within  the 
limits  of  the  Constitution,  which  I  would  not  willingly  make  for  so  desirable 
an  object.  Public  revenues  I  would  appropriate — private  taxation  I  would 
endure — to  relieve  this  otherwise  thrice  glorious  Republic,  from  the  calamity 
and  the  wrong  of  slavery.  I  would  not  only  resist  the  devil,  but  if  he  will 
flee  from  me,  I  will  build  a  bridge  of  gold  to  facilitate  his  escape.  I  mention 
this  to  prove  that  it  is  not  the  value,  in  money,  of  territorial  freedom,  for  which 
I  contend,  but  its  value  in  character,  in  justice,  in  human  happiness. 
While  I  utterly  deny  the  claim  set  up  by  the  South,  yet  I  would  gladly  con- 


31 

sent  that  my  southern  fellow  citizens  should  go  to  the  territories  and  carry 
there  every  kind  of  property  which  I  can  carry.  I  would  then  give  to  the 
Southern  States  their  full  share  of  all  the  income  ever  to  be  derived  from  the 
sales  of  the  public  lands,  or  the  leasing  of  the  public  mines ;  and  whatever, 
after  this  deduction,  was  left  in  the  public  treasury,  should  be  appropriated 
for  the  whole  nation,  as  has  been  the  practice  heretofore.  That  is,  in  con 
sideration  of  excluding  slavery  from  the  territories,  I  would  give  the  South 
a  double  share,  or  even  a  three-fold  share,  of  all  the  income  that  may  ever  be 
derived  from  them.  Pecuniary  surrenders  I  would  gladly  make  for  the  sake 
of  peace,  but  not  for  peace  itself  would  I  surrender  Liberty. 

It  would  be  to  suppose  our  merchants  and  manufacturers  void  of  common 
foresight,  could  they  believe  that  concession  now  will  bring  security  here 
after.  By  yielding  the  moral  question,  they  jeopard  their  pecuniary  inter 
ests.  Should  the  South  succeed  in  their  present  attempt  upon  the  territories, 
they  will  impatiently  await  the  retirement  of  Gen.  Taylor  from  the  Execu 
tive  Chair,  to  add  the  "State  of  Cuba,"  with  its  500,000  slaves,  its  igno 
rance  and  its  demoralization,  to  their  roll  of  triumph.  California  will  be  a 
free  trade  State,  by  the  most  certain  of  all  biases.  They  will  have  nothing 
to  sell  but  gold  ;  they  will  have  everything  to  buy — from  cradles  to  coffins, 
and  all  between.  If  New  Mexico  is  slave,  it  will  also  be  free  trade  ;  and 
Cuba  as  certainly  as  either — though  in  that  island  facilities  for  smuggling 
will  reduce  the  difference  between  tariff  and  free  trade  to  nothing.  A  sur 
render  therefore,  by  our  Northern  business  men,  will  be  most  disastrous  to 
the  very  business  that  tempts  them  to  surrender.  Will  they  take  no  warn 
ing  from  the  fact  that  their  apathy  in  regard  to  Texas  repealed  the  tariff  of 
1842  ?  This  is  a  low  motive,  I  admit ;  but  it  may  be  set  as  a  back-fire  to 
the  motive  by  which  some  of  them  appear  to  be  influenced.  There  was  no 
need,  not  a  shadow  of  need,  of  perilling  any  principle,  or  any  interest. 
Had  the  North  stood  firm,  had  they  been  true  to  the  great  principles  they 
have  so  often  and  so  solemnly  proclaimed,  the  waves  of  Southern  violence 
would  have  struck  harmless  at  their  feet.  He  is  not  learned  in  the  weather 
who  does  not  know  that  storms  from  the  South,  though  violent,  are  short.  We 
are  assailed  now  because  we  have  yielded  before.  The  compromise  of  1820 
begat  the  nullification  of  1832  ;  the  compromise  of  1832  inspired  the  mad 
exploit  of  compassing  Texas,  which  our  greater  madness  made  sane.  The 
moral  paralysis  which  failed  to  oppose  the  Mexican  war,  has  given  us  the 
territories.  If  the  territories  are  now  surrendered,  we  shall  have  Cuba,  and 
an  indefinite  career  of  conquest  and  of  slavery  will  be  opened  on  our  South 
western  border.  Every  new  concession  transfers  strength  from  our  side  to 
the  side  of  our  opponents  ;  and  if  we  cannot  arrest  our  own  course  when  we 
are  just  entering  the  rapids,  how  can  we  arrest  it  when  we  come  near  the  verge 
of  the  cataract  ?  The  South  may  rule  the  Union,  but  they  cannot  divide  it. 
Their  whole  Atlantic  seaboard  is  open  to  attack,  and  powerless  for  defence  ; 


32 

and  the  Mississippi  river  may  as  easily  be  divided  physically  as  politically 
into  independent  portions.  With  these  advantages,  let  us  never  aggress 
upon  their  rights,  but  let  us  maintain  our  own. 

Fellow-citizens,  I  would  gladly  relieve  the  darkness  of  this  picture  by  some 
gleams  of  light.  There  are  two  hopes  which,  as  yet,  are  not  wholly  extin 
guished  in  my  mind.  Beyond  all  question  a  compromise  bill  will  be  reported 
by  the  committee  of  thirteen,  and  will  pass  the  Senate,  and  free  California 
will  be  made  to  carry  as  great  a  burden  of  slavery  as  she  can  bear.  It  is 
still  possible  that  the  House  will  treat  as  it  deserves  this  adulterous  union.  A 
single  vote  may  turn  the  scale,  and  Massachusetts  may  give  that  vote.  Not 
improbably,  too,  the  fate  of  the  bill  may  depend  upon  the  earnestness  and 
decision  with  which  Northern  constituencies  make  their  sentiments  known  to 
their  representatives,  whether  by  petitions,  by  private  letters,  or  by  public 
resolutions.  Let  every  lover  of  freedom  do  his  best  and  his  most. 

Should  the  North  fail,  I  have  still  one  hope  more.  It  is  that  New 
Mexico  will  do  for  herself  what  we  shall  have  basely  failed  to  do  for  her.  If 
both  these  hopes  fail,  our  country  is  doomed  to  run  its  unobstructed  career  of 
conquest,  of  despotism,  and  of  infamy. 

I  have  now,  my  fellow-citizens,  given  you  my  "  Views  and  Opinions  "  on 
the  present  crisis  in  our  public  affairs.  Had  I  regarded  my  own  feelings  I 
should  have  spoken  less  at  length ;  but  the  subject  has  commanded  me. 
I  trust  I  have  spoken  respectfully  towards  those  from  whom  I  dissent,  while 
speaking  my  own  sentiments  justly  and  truly.  I  have  used  no  asperity,  for 
all  my  emotions  have  been  of  grief  and  not  of  anger.  My  words  have  been 
cool  as  the  telegraphic  wires,  while  my  feelings  have  been  like  the  lightning 
that  runs  through  them.  The  idea  that  Massachusetts  should  contribute,  or 
consent,  to  the  extension  of  Human  Slavery  !  —  is  it  not  enough,  not  merely 
to  arouse  the  living  from  their  torpor,  but  the  dead  from  their  graves  !  Were 
I  to  help  it,  nay,  did  I  not  oppose  it  with  all  the  powers  and  faculties  which 
God  has  given  me,  I  should  see  myriads  of  agonized  faces  glaring  out  upon  me 
from  the  future,  more  terrible  than  Duncan's  at  Macbeth ;  and  I  would  rather 
feel  an  assassin's  poignard  in  my  breast  than  forever  hereafter  to  see  the 
"  the  air-drawn  dagger  "  of  a  guilty  imagination.  In  Massachusetts,  the 
great  drama  of  the  Revolution  begun.  Some  of  its  heroes  yet  survive 
amongst  us.  At  Lexington,  at  Concord,  and  on  Bunker  Hill,  the  grass 
still  grows  greener  where  the  soil  was  fattened  with  the  blood  of  our  fathers. 
If,  in  the  providence  of  God,  we  must  be  vanquished  in  this  contest,  let  it  be 
by  force  of  the  overmastering  and  inscrutable  powers  above  us,  and  not  by 
our  own  base  desertion. 

I  am,  gentlemen,  your  much  honored,  obliged  and  obedient  servant, 

HORACE  MANN. 


ORIGINAL  NARRATIVE 

mi: 

BOSTON     MASSACRE. 


"  A  Nurrathe  of  the  Hurri  Of  tht 

Hfth  day  of  March,  1770,  by  soldiers  of  the  Twenty-ninth  Regiment,  which,  with  the 
Fourteenth  Regiment,  was  then  quartered  there:  with  some  observations  on  t 
of  things  prior  to  that  catastrophe,  originally  printed  by  order  of  the  Town  of 
and  sold  by  Edes  &  Gill,  in  Queen  Street:"  reprinted  by  J.  Doggctt,  New  York,  and 
now  sold  by  Redding  &  Co.,  No.  8  State  Street,  Boston,  (in  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
the  place  where  the  tragedy  occurred,)  —  !  Volume,  8vo,  120  pages,  — illustrated  with 
an  excellent  copy  of  Paul  Revere's  picture  of  the  event,  and  "a  new  and  accurate  Plan 
of  the  Town  of  Boston  in  New  England."  The  work  contains  the  original  official 
account  of  the  Boston  Massacre  of  the  fifth  of  March,  17/0.  It  Avas  drawn  up  by  a 
committee  appointed  by  the  town,  consisting  of  the  Honorable  James  Bowdoin,  Dr. 
Joseph  Warren,  and  Samuel  Pemberton,  Esq.  The  Report  was  submitted  to  a  town 
meeting  held  at  Faneuil  Hall,  by  adjournment,  on  the  19th  March,  and  was  ordered  to 
be  printed.  It  was  intended  principally  for  circulation  in  England,  and  a  vessel  of  war 
was  chartered  by  the  town  to  take  out  copies  to  London.  The  present  edition,  with 
the  exception  of  the  subjoined  "additional  observations,"  which1  are  obtained  from  a 
copy  of  this  work  in  the  Library  of  Harvard  College,  is  an  exact  reprint  from  an  origi 
nal  in  the  Library  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  containing  the  full  appendix, 
certificates,  &c.  To  which  is  prefixed  an  account  of  the  events  of  the  few  days  preced 
ing  the  massacre,  drawn  up  by  the  late  Hon.  Alden  Bradford,  and  a  Report  made  by 
John  Hancock,  Samuel  Adams,  Joseph  Warren,  and  others.  The  whole  presenting, 
it  is  believed,  the  most  complete  and  authentic  account  that  has  been  published  of  the 
Massacre. 

Neatly  Bound  in  Cloth,  — Price  5O  Cents. 

REDDING  &  CO., 

No.  8  State  Street. 

SPEECH  OF  HORACE  MANN, 

OF     MASSACHUSETTS, 

ON   THE  SUBJECT   OF 

SLAVERY  IN  THE  TERRITORIES, 

AND 

THE  CONSEQUENCES  OF  A  DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  UNION, 

Delivered  in  the  United  States  House  of  Representatives,  Feb.  15, 1850. 
IN  A  NEAT  PAMPHLET,  UNIFORM  WJTII  THE  PRESENT  ADDK 
Price  12*  Cents. 

RKDDING  &  CO..  Publishers. 

No.  8  State  Street. 


